perry@well.UUCP (Perry S. Kivolowitz) (12/22/85)
The following is a review of Maxisoft's MaxiDesk (distributed by electronic arts (sigh)). I first saw the pre-release versions of some of MaxiSofts software a while back. I reported to the net that it really failed to impress me at that time. I was given an official for-sale release of MaxiDesk to appraise for a major AMIGA dealer. To save your time (if you don't want to read the details) the MaxiSoft staff should hang it up. Anyone with any self respect or pride in their profession would be ashamed to give this software away let alone sell it. The idea of MaxiDesk (which seems to have come into existence after the demo pre-release package) is a sound one. Put together several useful desk-top accessories in a unified manner. But...the implementation is so far below what one would expect from a professional (especially distributed by EA) as to be insulting to our profession, the AMIGA, and embarrasing to EA. Detail: MaxiDesk is a: Calculator, PhoneBook (rolodex type thingy) NotePad Calendar Alarm Clock Keyboard Helper (is this something like hamburger helper?) Objective Remarks: The package crashes both itself and the AMIGA easily. o overflowing calculator accumulator causes Guru Meditation. o typing too many digits causes guru meditation. o canceling most saves to disk causes loop which results in hung machine or crash. (Gotta mention this NOW!) - SpeechToy (by Dave Lucas CAInc) which is public domain (on the amicus disk) is renamed MaxiSet (barf) and is identicle in every way right down to (why I mention it here) bugs which cause it to hang the AMIGA (double clicking on Speak). (subjective interjection: I hadn't seen speechtoy before and thought it was the best part of MaxiDesk. It figures that they didn't write it - and selling what people can get for free is less than honorable). Division by zero in the calculator returns zero. Current work in notepad, calendar and phone book is easily lost if you attempt to open a new phone book (etc) and change your mind - evidently they purge your current stuff before checking to see if the new stuff you want to do is really there (on disk). It even goes so far as to rename your current work bogus names if you request a file that doesn't exist you exercise your right to change your mind (at an are you sure requestor). Calendar Windows are created the full height of the screen and more than half a screen wide AND cannot be resized. This means you can't see how much memory is left on the intuition title bar. (especially when MaxiDrek hangs leaving the window around). Phonebook has long delays when presenting text messages. All mouse and keyboard events are being stored up waiting for the Delay to finish - If you aren't careful you'll be treated to 10 minutes worth ``you can't do that'' messages. ``Starting'' a phone call when the disk is write protected crashes the machine (from the phone book). Dial crashes the machine also. The MaxiDusk programs hung or crashed on many other occasions but we (Dave Scidmore (dave@heurikon) and I) couldn't reliably recreate the circumstances as we could with the above. SUBJECTIVE follows: Graphics? Graphics? Graphics? Huh? None - except speechtoy (alias MaxiSet)'s little face. Text only. The 1.1 Calculator puts MaxiDesk to shame. And its free. The package is confused as to who its audience is. A four function calculator with hex might be used by a techy of some kind but such a person would also probably want functions like sqrt, 1/x, sin. No? If the package is for housewives or executives why does the manual say the the keyboard helper is indispensible (you know what it does? it prints the ascii table - can even print to a file in case you want to change ascii). To recall from calculator memory you have to add zero to a memory location (or multiply it by 1). Long delays after mouse button hits before anything happens. DISK IS COPY PROTECTED in such a way as to make backup impossible. Furthermore, MaxiDesk is (supposedly) part of MaxiSoft's integrated solution to the world's ills. How integrated can it be if you can't get the parts onto one disk? Even for free - I am giving my copy back to the dealer. Maxisoft is given EA, themselves, and Commodore a BAD IMAGE. Perry S. Kivolowitz P.S. So as not to sound all bad - Delux Paint (distributed by EA) is far better than words can describe. See it and be awed. EA should have better procurement so as not to shame products like DP by also putting their name on things like MaxiDesk.
papa@uscvax.UUCP (Marco Papa) (12/25/85)
> The following is a review of Maxisoft's MaxiDesk (distributed by > electronic arts (sigh)). > > I first saw the pre-release versions of some of MaxiSofts software a > while back. I reported to the net that it really failed to impress me > at that time. I was given an official for-sale release of MaxiDesk > to appraise for a major AMIGA dealer. > > To save your time (if you don't want to read the details) the MaxiSoft > staff should hang it up. Anyone with any self respect or pride in their > profession would be ashamed to give this software away let alone sell it. I just bought MaxiSoft MaxiComm terminal emulation and transfer program (also distributed by EA). It is simple enough and I had no problem in transferring files from my AT to the Amiga using the XMODEM error-correcting protocol (I used PC-VT on the AT side) at 9600 bauds, and also as a full ansi terminal emulator. It turns out that the emulation is the same one supported by IBM's PC/IX terminal driver, so that the following termcap works perfectly with the 24 line version of MaxiComm (while none of the one previously posted worked, since they basically used a slightly modified vt100 entry, which does not seem to work properly in some cases). amiga|pcix|AMIGA|Amiga MaxiComm or IBM XT using PC/IX:\ :li#24:co#80:cl=\Ec:bs:cm=\E[%i%2;%2H:nd=\E[C:up=\E[A:ce=\E[K:\ :cd=\E[J:am:pt:bw:eo:do=\E[B:up=\E[A:so=\E[7m:se=\E[m:\ :us=\E[4m:ue=\E[m:ku=\E[A:kd=\E[B:kr=\E[C:kl=\E[D:kb=\b:\ :ki=\E[@:kh=\E[H:kp=\E[V:kq=\E[U:km=\E[G:kz=\E[Y:\ :sr=\E[T\E[A:sf=\E[S\E[B:ch=\E[%i%2G:ms:xt: The only thing that I am really missing is Kermit support. This one is also copy protected. On a side, I was very lucky to get MaxiComm and EA's Deluxe Paint (awsome!). The dealers in LA were getting them and running out the same day! Marco Papa USC - Computer Science Dept. UUCP: ...!{decvax,ucbvax,hplabs}!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!uscvax!papa ...!{allegra,trwrb,trwspp,ism780,cithep,oberon}!uscvax!papa CSNET: papa@usc-cse.csnet ARPA: papa%usc-cse@csnet-relay.arpa