korn@pavepaws.berkeley.edu (Peter "Arrgh" Korn) (07/01/86)
I've received several letters correcting a few things I said in my
review. Specifically one letter from Keith Lander, who wrote
MacAuthor. His letter is enclosed below.
Dear Peter,
I hope you will find this response to your MacAuthor review to be of some
help. The numbering follows the numbering for your "not so nice features".
1) You can change font from within a paragraph by using "highlight"
styles which you can define in the Text menu via the Style Editor.
These enable you to combine attributes into a single unit (eg. Font,
type size, type style, sub/superscripted etc).
2) We are adding footnotes in a release due later this year.
3) We have addressed this problem in v1.2 which will shortly be released.
Text no longer vanishes below the insertion point, and editing operations
are very much faster.
4) Yes you can set up heading styles.
5) The About MacAuthor command appears when no documents are open.
It was relagated to this status because I don't think a command to
show the credits is much use. About document is much more use.
Your point about the method of setting tabs has been noted.
That said, it would be a shame if the Mac user interface guidelines
were treated as dogma by all developers.
6) Done in v1.2.
Re the bugs.
1) The disc containing the staionery pad you open must not be
write-protected because MA creates a file on it.
2) MA needs a printing manager in order to find out details of
the paper sizes available. MacDraw is the same I think.
3) Why do you want to copy it. If you send in your registration
card we'll send you a backup.
General: Version 1.1 has been sent free to all registered users.
V1.2 will soon be sent (free). A spelling checker and hyphenator
is in the works, as are converters for write/word files. It can
already read Tank files.
Regards, Keith Lander, Icon Technology, England.
And now my comments: Icon Technology, and specifically Keith Lander, are
nice folks, and are quite responsive (this is a good bunch of folks).
I very much look forward to version 1.2, which sounds like it will be
a considerable improvement to a very good program.
However, I strenuously disagree with Mr. Lander when it comes to
copy protection. Given that Icon Technology is a responsive company,
it would be in the interest of those who feel as I do let them know.
You can send your comments to Keith c/o myself (see e-mail address below),
and I'll see that he gets them.
-----
Peter Korn "Fred Astair? Ginger Rogers did
korn@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU everything he did, backwards
{dual,decvax,sdcsvax}!ucbvax!korn and in high heels!"joel@gould9.UUCP (Joel West) (07/01/86)
I'd like to thank Peter for including this reply In article <768@ucbcad.BERKELEY.EDU>, korn@pavepaws.berkeley.edu (Peter "Arrgh" Korn) quotes the MacAuthor author: > 2) We are adding footnotes in a release due later this year. > 3) We have addressed this problem in v1.2 which will shortly be released. > 6) Done in v1.2. Translation: REAL SOON NOW > 5) The About MacAuthor command appears when no documents are open. > It was relagated to this status because I don't think a command to > show the credits is much use. About document is much more use. > That said, it would be a shame if the Mac user interface guidelines > were treated as dogma by all developers. Wrong. The main advantage of the Mac is that it is easy to use, and that it has a consistent interface. Those areas of the interface that are defined by Apple ARE FOLLOWED BY ALL MAC APPLICATIONS. In other areas, one should strive to be consistent with other programs your user might see (de facto standards.) > Re the bugs. > > 1) The disc containing the staionery pad you open must not be > write-protected because MA creates a file on it. Translation: I was too lazy (or careless) to check for that possible error condition. I'm point a finger rather than adding a meaningful error message. > 2) MA needs a printing manager in order to find out details of > the paper sizes available. MacDraw is the same I think. This is true, although most programs will assume at least one page (US 8.5 x 11) absent a print manager. > 3) Why do you want to copy it. If you send in your registration > card we'll send you a backup. For floppy-based users, you may want to have various configurations, with different fonts, system disks, etc. Also, can you say "hard disk"? How about "RAM disk"? I do not use bootleg software, but at the same time, I only own (personally) one piece of copy-protected software, MS-Word, which is so poorly protected that it really isn't very inconvenient to use with something like Copy II Mac to make spares. We have Excel at the office, but I won't buy a copy for home until I'm sure I have a way of making an arbitrary number of backups and/or an arbitrary number of installations (on to the same hard disk). There's enough good software out there that's not copy protected that you don't need to patronize companies that deliberately add a feature to make their software more difficult to use. As a software developer, I understand the potential problem, but the bottom line on copy protection is: 1) It won't stop dishonest people; 2) It will annoy and possibly turn off honest people. 3) It is of marginal benefit for the marginally honest. -- Joel West (619) 457-9681 CACI, Inc. Federal, 3344 N. Torrey Pines Ct., La Jolla, CA 92037 {cbosgd, ihnp4, pyramid, sdcsvax, ucla-cs} !gould9!joel joel%gould9.uucp@NOSC.ARPA