dont@xios.XIOS.UUCP (Don Taylor) (03/11/88)
Is this new? I just bought MS Windows 2.0 and when I opened up the packet, Microsoft did not provide any information about getting support. I guess that they are finally formally recognising that they sell software without support! Anyway, I have a couple of questions that I would like to ask MS or anyone else who might have an answer. 1. Is it really that s....l....o.....w on printing. Bill Gates claimed that MS Windows on an AT is as fast as a MAC. Hmmmm. Well, my 8 mhz. AT goes away for minutes on end when I print a paint file, or even a write file. It's speed is so poor that I would class it as unusable. 2. I have an LQ-800, I have set it up properly, I believe, according to the manuals and read.me's, but whenever I select one of the built in LQ fonts write, write always uses the same screen font to display text regardless of the actual font, or size of font. The non-LQ fonts work ok, but they take forever to print and are not as good looking. The correct fonts are printed, they just don't correspond to what is on the screen. 3. Is there a way in paint to get rid of the tools display? It occupies so much of the screen that there is not enough room left to do a decent drawing, especially if it is set up in printer mode instead of display mode. Thx. in advance, Don -- Don Taylor ...!uunet!mnetor!dciem!nrcaer!xios!dont 54, Chimo Drive, Kanata, Ontario, Canada, K2L 1Y9 (613-) 592-3894
michael@orcisi.UUCP (Michael Herman) (03/17/88)
> Is this new? I just bought MS Windows 2.0 and when I opened up the > packet, Microsoft did not provide any information about getting > support. I guess that they are finally formally recognising that > they sell software without support! Anyway, I have a couple of > questions that I would like to ask MS or anyone else who might have an > answer. MS has a telephone support number but they expect you to use DIAL, their support bulletin board. At one point, MS wanted US$300/year for DIAL. About a year ago, DIAL was very understaffed and couldn't keep up with the requests that were arriving (which I calculated to be about 30/day). 6+ week turnaround was not uncommon on some pretty basic requests. The Windows group at MS then started a Windows support group on GENIE (which is now available in Canada) because DIAL wasn't proving effective. MS then withdrew their direct support for the GENIE bulletin board because the DIAL people were crying mutiny. However, some MS people still continued to support GENIE as private individuals. We dropped our DIAL subscription and have been using GENIE (although it has been a several months since I used either). Perhaps someone can provide a more current update. > 1. Is it really that s....l....o.....w on printing. Bill Gates claimed > that MS Windows on an AT is as fast as a MAC. Hmmmm. Well, my 8 mhz. AT > goes away for minutes on end when I print a paint file, or even a write > file. It's speed is so poor that I would class it as unusable. You're probably using the spooler. In your win.ini, set spooler=no Under 1.0, MS recommended that the spooler be avoided. I don't think the problem is with the spooler but the amount of compute power needed to run Windows and spool at the same time. It is certainly pushing your 8M Hz AT beyond its limits. > 2. I have an LQ-800, I have set it up properly, I believe, according to > 3. Is there a way in paint to get rid of the tools display? It occupies Can't help you here.
cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) (03/18/88)
> Is this new? I just bought MS Windows 2.0 and when I opened up the > packet, Microsoft did not provide any information about getting > support. I guess that they are finally formally recognising that > they sell software without support! Anyway, I have a couple of Oh no. Software as intuitive as MS Windows doesn't require software support. :-) > questions that I would like to ask MS or anyone else who might have an > answer. > > 1. Is it really that s....l....o.....w on printing. Bill Gates claimed > that MS Windows on an AT is as fast as a MAC. Hmmmm. Well, my 8 mhz. AT > goes away for minutes on end when I print a paint file, or even a write > file. It's speed is so poor that I would class it as unusable. This is my experience also. But then again, compare printing with Windows to printing a full page MacPaint drawing on an ImageWriter -- that goes into the "unusable" class also -- but most Mac users with just an Image- Writer don't have anything to compare it to. > 2. I have an LQ-800, I have set it up properly, I believe, according to > the manuals and read.me's, but whenever I select one of the built in LQ > fonts write, write always uses the same screen font to display text > regardless of the actual font, or size of font. The non-LQ fonts work ok, This mystified me at first also -- but I found that selecting the Fonts... menu choice enabled me to select more sizes. (Of course, some of the large sizes start giving my fonts on the screen again -- go from 36 pt. Times to 48 pt. Times, and the font gets smaller). > but they take forever to print and are not as good looking. The correct > fonts are printed, they just don't correspond to what is on the screen. There also seems to be some unobvious switch for controlling the size of the print. MOST of the time, if I try to print large type sizes, I get very tall, but very skinny characters -- ONCE I've produced print that looked like the screen fonts. I have a theory that MS Windows was tested with about three printers (one of which was a PostScript printer -- boy that works well with MS Windows!), and the wizards of Microsoft :-) trusted their printer tables and font conversions to work for all other cases. > Don Taylor ...!uunet!mnetor!dciem!nrcaer!xios!dont My attitude about Microsoft software is about the same as my attitude about anti-perspirants -- I would prefer a better solution, but there isn't one available, so I guess I will have to stick to something inelegant and smelly. Clayton E. Cramer
dick@slvblc.UUCP (Dick Flanagan) (03/19/88)
In article <1269@orcisi.UUCP> michael@orcisi.UUCP (Michael Herman) writes: > MS has a telephone support number but they expect you to use DIAL, > their support bulletin board. At one point, MS wanted US$300/year for > DIAL. About a year ago, DIAL was very understaffed and couldn't keep > up with the requests that were arriving (which I calculated to be about > 30/day). 6+ week turnaround was not uncommon on some pretty basic requests. > [...] > Perhaps someone can provide a more current update. MS now wants US$450 per year for just DOS-related DIAL, and US$600 per year for XENIX-related DIAL. If you are in the unfortunate position of needing both "services," they take pity on you and only charge you US$800 per year. Such a deal. . . . Dick -- Dick Flanagan, W6OLD GEnie: FLANAGAN UUCP: ...!ucbvax!ucscc!slvblc!dick Voice: +1 408 336 3481 Internet: slvblc!dick@ucscc.UCSC.EDU LORAN: N037 04.7 W122 04.6 USPO: PO Box 155, Ben Lomond, CA 95005
wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Resident Scatologist) (03/27/88)
In article <1975@optilink.UUCP>, cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) writes:
+
+ My attitude about Microsoft software is about the same as my attitude
+ about anti-perspirants -- I would prefer a better solution, but there
+ isn't one available, so I guess I will have to stick to something inelegant
+ and smelly.
I just received my copy of GEM 3.0 with First Word Plus and Paint.
At the same time I picked up GEM Draw. Both products are very
reasonably priced via mail order.
GEM is a very nice graphic environment compared to to Windows. At
least, in GEM, things finish the same hour your start them, unlike
pokey Windows.
I heartily recommend both Draw and Paint. First Word Plus isn't
really what I'd consider a real word processor, but it is much
better than than Write in Windows.
Digital Reasearch also unlike Microsoft answers their phone, if not
with alacrity. I logged a call last Wednesday (had to leave a
message on an answering machine) and got a call back Thursday
afternoon from an uncharacteristicly pleasant and helpful person at
D-R. I was impressed. My experinces with Microsoft have been
interminable waits on hold and when I finally get a person, the
answer has been to the effect "What? you don't have a REAL IBM PC?
Well tough sh*t! Goodbye."
D-R has managed to program GEM to be quick and play by the rules
with the EGA card. I use an AT&T 6300 in which I have installed an
STB Multires II EGA board. It works fine with GEM. Windows sends
the screen into a black oblivion, requiring a cold reboot.
The GEM developer's kit is also relatively afforable. I don't have
it, but I've seen it advertised for about $350. I don't know if
you get any special support as a developer.
I don't get any financial reward for saying I like GEM. I just
like it; your milage may vary according to driving conditions.
--Billcroft@spked.UUCP (Steve Croft) (04/04/88)
In article <1060@neoucom.UUCP>, wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Resident Scatologist) writes: > GEM is a very nice graphic environment compared to to Windows. At > least, in GEM, things finish the same hour your start them, unlike > pokey Windows. Alright... don't be comparing (pardon the expression) apples and oranges... GEM and Windows have two different objectives in mind. Windows supports some methods of multi-tasking (a wierd method, anyway)... GEM is more of a program switcher. Steve (...!ucbvax!ucdavis!csusac!athena!crofts) Disclaimer: If anything I said is wrong, then what I really meant was what you believe to be correct...
wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew) (04/06/88)
Steve Croft points out that comparing GEM with Windows is not exactly fair. As much as it pains me :-) to admit, I guess he is correct. I should be more careful; what I had in mind was GEM 3.0 versus windows 1.03. We only recently received Windows 2, which I have not had the pleasure of being able to use yet. As far as multitasking goes, the comparison of Windows 386 is probably more farily compared to Concurent DOS 386 or with Desqview 2.01. I still belive you get more for your money when you purchase either GEM draw or GEM write (which comes with paint). The GEM products come with the complete desk environment (not just runtime). Windows on the other hand seems to have left the development of applications up to 3rd party developers. I suppose that is alright since that is how we make money, being 3rd parties. While, I don't own it, I have watched a person tinkering with Windows 2's paint program -- it doesn't really seem to have evolved any since 1.03. The last point still stands, I'd rank Microsoft's telephone support as only one notch more helpful than Micropro's support for Wordstar; not exactly award-winning. Microsoft is a big company, but not all big companies have bad phone support -- AT&T, for instance is pretty good, but then they ought be be, seeing as they are in the phone business. Hardware compatibility is also an issue. The guy that is working with Windows has had some problems on non True-blue IBM equipment. It has been my experience that GEM is more forgiving. For instance, I have not been able to get Windows 1.03 to work with the STB EGA card that I use in my AT&T 6300. GEM, on the other hand appears to abide by the rules, and yet does not really seem to be slow by being a good hardware citizen. While windows may be a fine product, one may find that GEM is the only viable windowing environment for clone computers and/or weird video cards. Of course, Windows will win in the end because Microsoft knows how to court the media and developers while Digital Research has neither the money nor apparent accumen to do so. -- That is, of course, assuming that Apple doesn't get its way! --Bill
nebo@uis-oc.UUCP (Bob Mathias.) (04/11/88)
> Hardware compatibility is also an issue. ...
GEM only offers limited printer hardware support wereas Windows supports
a wide range of printers. We use a fair number of dot matrix printers at
work and found that GEM prefers Epson compatible printers. It is a shame,
but because of printer support, many people use Inavison under Windows
instead of GEM Draw (a product I prefer).
--
Bob Mathias uucp: ...uunet!ccicpg!uis-oc!nebo
Unisys Corporation CIS: 70340,165
Mission Viejo, Ca.bicker@hoqax.UUCP (The Resource, Poet of Quality) (04/14/88)
Sure GEM Draw is nice, but not spectacular. Plain and simple, Digital Research is not there for you when you need it. I put a call into them two days ago and three or four times since and still no help. Very unprofessional. Forget GEM. Let's find something else. I don't have time to figure out these problems. -- /kohn/brian.c AT&T Bell Laboratories Semantic Engineering Center The Resource, Poet of Quality ...ihnp4!hoqam!bicker (201) 949-5850 "It is useless for sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism while wolves remain of a different opinion." - Wm. Ralph Inge, D.D.
wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew) (04/14/88)
The following device drivers are available from Digital Reseach. They are 5 bucks each. If you want to order one, specify if you want the driver for gem 2.2 or gem 3. Also you can order on either 3.5 or 5.25 inch media: Pack # Supported devices #1 IBM EGA display, IBM 8 color EGA #2 HPGL & DM/PL plotter drivers #3 IBM Quietwriter, IBM 3812 pageprinter (both 240 DPI) #4 Epson LQ 2500 color (180 DPI) Toshiba P351 color HP Paintjet #5 Epson JX-80 ( 120 * 144 DPI) #6 Quadjet (84 DPI) #7 Thinkjet (96 DPI) #8 AST Turbolaser (300 DPI) Tall Tree jlaser #9 Epson GQ3500 (low res only, 150 DPI) #10 Polaroid Palette Plus (resolution not stated) #11 Ricoh laser (300 DPI) Xerox 4045 #12 IBM Proprinters X24 & XL24 (180 DPI) NEC P5XL (doesn't say if it supports color on this one) Add 10 bucks for shipping & handling. They don't give a phone number. You can pay via check, Visa, MC, or AmEx. State card number and expiration date. Addrress is: Digital Research Order Processing Dept. PO Box DRI Monterey, CA 93942 USA (ps I don't work for or get any money from DRI) --Bill
alexande@drivax.UUCP (Mark Alexander) (04/16/88)
In article <184@uis-oc.UUCP> nebo@uis-oc.UUCP (Bob Mathias.) writes: >GEM only offers limited printer hardware support... I'm probably going to get flamed for commercialization on the net, but I couldn't let this one go. Here is a list of printers that GEM/3 supports. The * indicates printers that are supported by extra-cost driver packs ($5.00 each). Each driver packs usually include support for two or three printers or printer families. Color Printers ===== ======== QMS Color PostScript (300dpi 16 colors) Xerox 4020 (120x240 16 colors) *Epson LQ2500C (180dpi 16 colors) *Epson JX-80 (120x144 16 colors) *HP PaintJet (180dpi 16 colors) *IBM Color JetPrinter (100x96 16 colors) *NEC P5,P6 (180dpi 16 colors) *Quadram QuadJet (84dpi 16 colors) *Toshiba P351C (180dpi 16 colors) Monochrome Printers ========== ======== C.Itoh 8510 (120x144) Epson FX-80,FX-100,LQ-800,LQ-850 (120x144) Epson LQ-1000,LQ-1050,LQ-1500,LQ-2500,SQ-2500 (180dpi) Epson MX-80 Graftrax (120x144) IBM Graphics Printer (120x144) IBM ProPrinter (120x144) Okidata 92/193 (IBM) (120x144) Toshiba P321,P341,P351 (180x180) *HP ThinkJet (96dpi) *IBM ProPrinter II,X24,XL24 (180dpi) *IBM QuietWriter 2,3 (240dpi) *NEC P5XL (180dpi) Laser Printers ===== ======== Acer Multitech LP-75 (150dpi, 300dpi) Apple LaserWriter, LaserWriter Plus (PostScript) (300dpi) Apricot Laser LP-75 (150dpi, 300dpi) DataProducts LZR 2665 (300dpi) DEC LPS PrintServer 40 (300dpi) DEC LN03R Script Printer (300dpi) Epson GQ3500 (300dpi) HP LaserJet (75dpi) HP LaserJet Plus (150dpi) HP LaserJet Plus (300dpi, SoftFonts) HP LaserJet 500, Series II, 2000 (300dpi) HP PCL 100% compatibles (SoftFonts and Bitmaps) IBM Personal PagePrinter (PostScript) (300dpi) Kyocera F-100 (300dpi) NEC QuietWriter (300dpi) PostScript 100% compatibles QuadLaser I (300dpi) QMS PS-800, PS-800 Plus (300dpi) TI Omnilaser 2108,2115 (300dpi) Wang LCS15, LCS15 Font plus (300dpi) *AST Laser (300 dpi) *Epson GQ3500 (150 dpi) *IBM 3812 PagePrinter (240dpi) *Ricoh P6000 laser (300 dpi) *Tall Tree Jlaser (300dpi) *Xerox 4045 (300dpi) Phototypesetters ================ Linotronic 100,300,500 PostScript Compatible phototypesetters Plotters ======== *Epson *HIPLOT DM/PL (and compatibles) *HP 7470A,7475A,7550A,7580A,7585A,7580B,7585B,7586B *HP Color Pro, Color Pro with GEC *HP Draft Pro *HP Draft Master I, II *HPGL 100% compatible plotters Camera Devices ====== ======= *Poloroid Palette, Palette Plus -- Mark Alexander (UUCP: amdahl!drivax!alexande) "Bob-ism: the Faith that changes to meet YOUR needs." --Bob (as heard on PHC)
rps@homxc.UUCP (R.SHARPLES) (04/18/88)
In article <1105@neoucom.UUCP>, wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew) writes: > > The following device drivers are available from Digital Reseach. > They are 5 bucks each. If you want to order one, specify if you > want the driver for gem 2.2 or gem 3. Also you can order on either > 3.5 or 5.25 inch media: > > Pack # Supported devices > > #1 IBM EGA display, IBM 8 color EGA ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This is for the MONOCHROME mode. IBM 16 color support comes with the package (as well as many others) ...(stuff deleted at readnews's request) > > --Bill Russ Sharples homxc!rps NOTE: The above in NO WAY reflects the opinions of AT&T. These opinions are my own and the results of un-scientific and highly irregular analysis methods.