SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (05/29/87)
There is so much Apple // software, one hardly knows where to begin. An ideal choice depends both on the amount of money you wish to spend and whether you have a preference for a particular Apple // operating system. Just about all of the Pascal based Apple // software I've seen is SLOOOOWW. ThinkTank, for example is very nice but takes forever reading and writing to disk - which it does to excess. For the past couple of years, AppleWorks has been the top selling program for all types of computers - as much as 60% of the total Apple // software market. There is a reason for that. When equipped with "add-ons" such as MacroWorks, it is a pretty good word processor, a very nice spreadsheet, and a rather nice flat filer. There also are programs around to expand the AppleWorks desktop and number of spreadsheet rows and columns into the megabytes. In the end, it is possible to calculate a larger model than with Lotus 1-2-3. It is rather expensive if you don't need all of that (especially with the price of the add-ons figured in). Word Perfect is said to be as powerful and full-featured a word processor as anyone could ever need. As a word processor, it has features not attainable by AppleWorks (foot noting for instance). SuperCalc 3.a is a more powerful spreadsheet than Appleworks and has fairly extensive screen and print graphics capabilities as well. Apple Access II is a ProDOS program that does VT-100 (not all features however) emulation and isn't too expensive. As terminal programs go, it is barely worth its list price ($75). I'm still plugging along with DOS 3.3 software. I like Pie Writer (no longer available; Hayden was acquired by Spinnaker and the program is no longer supported) because it is a full-featured, live-screen editor that stores lines followed by carriage returns (necessary for compatibility with mainframe storage). While I know how to use Applewriter, Word Perfect, AppleWriter and so forth to output files suitable for uploading, stripping the correct (and ONLY the correct) carriage returns from downloaded files is a PAIN). I don't like WYSIWYG word processors very much. The Spredsheet 2.0 from Call-A.P.P.L.E. Coop is a quite servicebable (and inexpensive) spreadsheet. It doesn't have macros or graphics, but it does everything I need it to do (I'm not into intensive modeling). The best graphics/drawing stuff I've seen for Apple // is from Polaware (used to be Penguin). I find the Complete Graphic System (which accepts mouse input as well as joystick, touchpad, and graphics tablet) to be pretty good. I haven't used the Graphics Magician, but I've seen lots of output produced with it and the program is spoken well of. The nice thing about Polarware software is that it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Compilers for micros are not my thing. I've seen Pascal and Applesoft compilers, and I'm not impressed. On an Apple //, the thing to do (evidently) is assemble.