AWCTTYPA@UIAMVS.BITNET ("David A. Lyons") (10/24/88)
>Date: Sat, 22 Oct 88 19:11:07 GMT >From: Bob Sherman <umigw!umbio!bsherm@HANDIES.UCAR.EDU> >Subject: AppleLink Review First, I should make clear my bias. I am an Apple Forum Consultant in the Apple Development Forum on AppleLink--Personal Edition. I don't get paid for it, but I'm compensated w/ free time on the system. I *don't* have anything to do with their policies or anything--I just hang around and field questions. >AppleLink - Personal edition - A Review. [from end of review] >I'm sure I will get some flames on the above, but it gives you the >basics of my review which will appear in a national publication >soon.. My response isn't intended as a flame, but I'm a little concerned that this review seems to concentrate on the minuses of ALPE without mentioning some definite plusses. >Will they send you a bill?? Heck no, they want permission to dip >their hands into your bank account or credit card, in other words, >they will not trust you to pay your bill, but you should trust them >to have access to your assets.. ALPE is not the only service that works that way. CompuServe and GEnie, for example, also require a credit card or checking account, or at least they did at the time I signed up for them--as far as I know they still do. I don't know why they all work that way. >OK, on to the service.. The software download sections appear quite >sparse, with only a dozen or so programs in most areas, compaired to >say Compuserve with hundreds of downloads in each section, and of the >few AppleLink has to offer, most, if not all can be found on the >other services.. The libraries only opened up fully a couple of weeks ago, and the various forum leaders are working hard to get the libraries stocked up. It's really hard to do a direct comparison with other services, too, since there are a lot more "sections" in the libraries on ALPE--not only are there more separate forums with their own libraries (utilities, development, telecommunicatins, productivity, AppleWorks, hardware, and several others), but the libraries themselves can and generally do have more than one level of categories in them. So when you get down to a specific subcategory and find the files you can download, YES, there will only be a few! >It appears that BLU, which has become almost a standard on the other >services is not acceptable to AppleLink, so they make you download >and use ALU to pack and unpack the download files (it appears that >Floyd Zink is the author of both).. Yes, Floyd Zink wrote both BLU (Binary Library Utility) and ACU [not ALU], Apple Conversion Utility. Now that ACU has been released, presumably it will be included on your original ALPE disk so that you won't have to download it. As I understand it, ACU will eventually become the new standard on the other services as well. It has some definite advantages: the resulting files are at least a bit smaller, and the new ACU file format supports extended files for GS/OS (although the utility itself does not yet support them). Extended files will become very important as soon as Apple defines the format of resource forks and releases a resource manager. >In the bulletin board areas the message base appears very small, many >of the messages dating back several months, and only a few current >ones.. Those two things need to be dealt with separately. Since ALPE does *not* automatically delete old messages, there will certainly be old messages around unless the forum leader deletes them. Discussions that could be useful references for new users can be left there. (On CompuServe, only the most recent 500 messages are kept in each forum.) The comment about the message base being small may be true of some of the forums at present. It's not true of the Apple Development Forum, where I spend most of my time. The level of activity probably isn't quite up to what it is on some other services, but it's been increasing lately, as you might expect. Knoledgable Apple employees can often be found in the forums in non-official capacities. >2 people in a room chatting at $6 per hour = $12 per hour, Reach Out >America only costs $8 per hour for the same 2 people to chat via >phone, which for sure is much faster.. What about 20 people chatting in a room? Each forum has weekly real-time chats, generally about an hour long. Tuesdays at 10p ET is the Development chat; they are generally productive and interesting. >My last observation about AppleLink is that they REQUIRE you to use >their software to access the system, and of course it only operates >on an Apple. [several disadvantages] Perfectly true. To be fair, let's also consider some of the advantages: --You get to use pull-down menus. --You can receive and send real-time "Flash" messages from and to other users at any time. These messages pop up in the middle of your screen; once you hit ESC to acknowledge them, you are right back where you were, nothing disturbed. Try that with a service that lets you use any old terminal program. --While you're in a Chat, you can read and write mail in the post office. You can toggle back and forth between the chat and your mail at any time. Try doing that with a service that lets you use any old terminal program. --You can scroll back and forth through a message you're reading. When replying to a message in the post office, you can scroll through the original message as well as the reply you're writing. > Internet -- bsherm%umbio@umigw.miami.edu > UUCP -- {uunet!gould}!umbio!bsherm > Miami's Big Apple 305-948-8000 1200 baud 24 hours 8 years online --David A. Lyons bitnet: awcttypa@uiamvs DAL Systems CompuServe: 72177,3233 P.O. Box 287 GEnie mail: D.LYONS2 North Liberty, IA 52317 AppleLinkPE: Dave Lyons
gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn ) (10/24/88)
In article <8810231841.aa15718@SMOKE.BRL.MIL> AWCTTYPA@UIAMVS.BITNET ("David A. Lyons") writes: >--You can scroll back and forth through a message you're reading. But apparently you can't abort the transfer of a message into your AppleLink text buffer. If you ask for, say, technical information and upon seeing the first few lines you realize it's not what you wanted, you have to wait for the WHOLE THING to finish downloading before you can escape. When it runs on for several pages, that is yet another expensive waste of time.
verney@geowhiz.UUCP (Verney Green) (10/25/88)
In article <8810231841.aa15718@SMOKE.BRL.MIL> AWCTTYPA@UIAMVS.BITNET ("David A. Lyons") writes: >>My last observation about AppleLink is that they REQUIRE you to use >>their software to access the system, and of course it only operates >>on an Apple. [several disadvantages] > >Perfectly true. To be fair, let's also consider some of the advantages: > >--You get to use pull-down menus. In my book this is a strong disadvantage. If I wanted pull down menus I would have bought a Mac. Can't Apple keep these two different lines of computers straight? Scott Scott, Scott, Scott. Didn't your mother tell you not to post personal grudges? _______________________________________________________________________________ Scott Kempf I've got type-ahead. I'll use this mouse when I can mouse-ahead. MAIL: 1302 Rutledge St., Madison, WI 53703 PHONE: (608) 255-6205 (home) UUCP: {seismo, topaz, harvard, ihnp4}!uwvax!geowhiz!scott ARPA: scott%geowhiz.UUCP@spool.cs.wisc.edu PHONE: (608) 262-6154 (work)