lloeb@spock.UUCP (Lawrence Loeb ) (06/01/86)
======= ======= In his warning about a bug in ThinkTank 512 (1.2) <robb@mentor.UUCP> writes that: >Would someone out there *PLEASE* put me out of my misery and do a real MAC >implementation of this indispensible tool. TT does virtually nothing >like good mac software should. (e.g. no scroll bars, screwy text editting, >evidently does its own memory management, is HUGE for what it does, >is incompatible with almost anything else such as switcher, etc. etc. etc.) > >In defense of Living Videotext, however, the person I talked to there was >very knowledgeable, helpful, sympathetic, and honest. She also didnt have >a workaround other than to keep the outlines small. >-- >Rob Bartel >...!tektronix!sequent!mentor!robb To which <matt@ucla-cs.UUCP> responds: >A new outline processor *DA* called 'Acta' will be out within a month. >I've had a pre-release (I paid for it :-) for about a month, and have >built 50+ kbyte outlines with NOT A SINGLE CRASH. ...skipping 7 lines.. >The only shortcoming is the inability to print an outline without >saving/clipping into a wordprocessor. > >I recommend Acta without reservation. TT-512 isn't worth the powder to >blow it to Poughkeepsie. > > - Matt >------- >UUCP: {ucbvax,ihnp4,randvax,trwrb!trwspp,ism780}!ucla-cs!matt >ARPA: matt@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU These messages were cross-posted to the Macintosh conference of BIX(tm) (Byte Information Exchange) of which I am co-moderator. David Winer, the president of Living Videotext, is a participant in that conference; and posted the following reply to the above messages. >macintosh/net.mac #194, from dwiner, 991 chars, Fri May 30 22:49:03 1986 >Comment to 191. >---------- >Is there any point in responding to these net.mac messages? > >The salient points are: > >1) We do not do our own memory management. > >2) There is a bug in the Apple ROMs - and we've trapped it - and fixed it. >Version 1.3 will be available at no charge to registered users using Mac+ >just for the asking. > >3) Although I am not a Mac programmer, I have had the problem explained to >me and can provide the background if anyone wants to hear it. > >4) I haven't been able to get a copy of Acta, apparently it is not for sale, >so I can't comment about that. > >5) Living Videotext has continued to develop on the Mac, and it's been 17 >months since TT512 shipped. Do you think we might have a more powerful >product very close to shipping? > >6) I'm glad you found our support people helpful, they've been under a lot >of pressure recently, but are holding their own like real troopers. > >I also check MCI mail daily, and Compuserve's MACUS Special Interest Group. > >Dave Winer, President, Living Videotext I thought the net might be interested in this message; and wanted to see it as widely disseminated as the original postings. --Laurence H. Loeb Usenet: ...decvax!yale!spock!lloeb CIS: (72466,1465) BIX:lloeb Delphi:ELEL #include <std.disclaimers> _InitBeer
gjs@k.cs.cmu.edu (Gregory Stein) (06/03/86)
Keywords: This discussion (rebuttal) about ThinkTank seemed pretty weak to me. I used ThinkTank once, but I didn't find it very useful. It seems to be a pretty standard thing as Rob says: >Would someone out there *PLEASE* put me out of my misery and do a real MAC >implementation of this indispensible tool. TT does virtually nothing >like good mac software should. (e.g. no scroll bars, screwy text editting, >evidently does its own memory management, is HUGE for what it does, >is incompatible with almost anything else such as switcher, etc. etc. etc.) > >In defense of Living Videotext, however, the person I talked to there was >very knowledgeable, helpful, sympathetic, and honest. She also didnt have >a workaround other than to keep the outlines small. >-- >Rob Bartel >...!tektronix!sequent!mentor!robb And then we hear about Acta and another blow to ThinkTank: >A new outline processor *DA* called 'Acta' will be out within a month. >I've had a pre-release (I paid for it :-) for about a month, and have >built 50+ kbyte outlines with NOT A SINGLE CRASH. ...skipping 7 lines.. >The only shortcoming is the inability to print an outline without >saving/clipping into a wordprocessor. > >I recommend Acta without reservation. TT-512 isn't worth the powder to >blow it to Poughkeepsie. > > - Matt >------- >UUCP: {ucbvax,ihnp4,randvax,trwrb!trwspp,ism780}!ucla-cs!matt >ARPA: matt@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU Finally, a "rebuttal" from Living VideoText: [ from Dave, the President of Living VideoText ] > >1) We do not do our own memory management. > >2) There is a bug in the Apple ROMs - and we've trapped it - and fixed it. >Version 1.3 will be available at no charge to registered users using Mac+ >just for the asking. > Oh. That's good -- you fixed it. What bug? Does Apple know about it? If not, mind telling us so we can fix it too? I'm a Mac programmer and I'd like to know about this. >3) Although I am not a Mac programmer, I have had the problem explained to >me and can provide the background if anyone wants to hear it. > Nice way to get out of explanations... >4) I haven't been able to get a copy of Acta, apparently it is not for sale, >so I can't comment about that. > Matt, could you tell us where and how you got Acta. Seems Dave can't get one. >5) Living Videotext has continued to develop on the Mac, and it's been 17 >months since TT512 shipped. Do you think we might have a more powerful >product very close to shipping? > How close? What are its new features? You might as well say, it would be good advertising for yourself, and a good defense. >6) I'm glad you found our support people helpful, they've been under a lot >of pressure recently, but are holding their own like real troopers. > This is good. Some companies have lousy support. But, personally, I did not find anything of value in this. I would almost be sure no one else did either. Your product may be good, I never really used it, but you should provide a little more information. Greg gjs@k.cs.cmu.edu [ Thanks to lloeb@spock for most of this. ] -- The disclaimer is around here somewhere, REALLY -- (Right here)
briand@tekig4.UUCP (Brian Diehm) (06/04/86)
>>[ from Dave, the President of Living VideoText ] >> >>2) There is a bug in the Apple ROMs - and we've trapped it - and fixed it. >>Version 1.3 will be available at no charge to registered users using Mac+ >>just for the asking. >> > >Oh. That's good -- you fixed it. What bug? Does Apple know about it? >If not, mind telling us so we can fix it too? I'm a Mac programmer >and I'd like to know about this. Altsys, makers of FONTastic (and the new Fontographer) are sending out a note with their Mac+ compatible releases, that states there is a memory management bug in the new ROMs. The effect is that memory is not freed or reclaimed until the application quits. Needless to say, I am quite anxious to see Apple update the ROMs, always a fun process that generates zillions of postings. -Brian Diehm Tektronix, Inc.