a218@mindlink.UUCP (Charlie Gibbs) (09/12/89)
A number of people have complained that the Amiga port of
WordPerfect is not completely "Amigatized". I was once willing
to join that chorus. However, I just played a bit with the MS-DOS
version of WordPerfect 5.0, and I'm changing my tune.
The MS-DOS user interface is DREADFUL! The numerous function
key combinations are terribly arcane (shall we say un-Intuitive? :-)
compared to the Amiga's pull-down menus. The various menus and
key combinations are not only obscure, but inconsistent. I felt
like a blind man feeling my way around, bumping into things and
getting hurt. ("Suddenly everything goes dark. You have fallen
into a pit. It hits! It hits! You hear the howling of the
Banshee...")
I was trying to set up a few configuration parameters for a
user, and I wound up breaking things to the point where we can't
even properly display previously-entered documents, and half the
keys don't work any more.
The reason I'm posting this is not to flame WPCorp (although
God knows they deserve it for their MS-DOS product). I just want
to point out that they really did a lot of work improving the user
interface when they ported WordPerfect to the Amiga. If it looks
a little clunky, remember that they started from a long way behind.
Remember too that I'm comparing version 4.1 on the Amiga with
version 5.0 under MS-DOS. So let's be nice to these people. Not
only might they bring out new versions for the Amiga, they might
even move some of the Amiga's user interface to the MS-DOS version,
and make life easier for lots of people.
Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.UUCP
For every vision there is an equal and opposite revision.fgd3@jc3b21.UUCP (Fabbian G. Dufoe) (09/14/89)
From article <494@mindlink.UUCP>, by a218@mindlink.UUCP (Charlie Gibbs): > > A number of people have complained that the Amiga port of > WordPerfect is not completely "Amigatized". I was once willing > to join that chorus. However, I just played a bit with the MS-DOS > version of WordPerfect 5.0, and I'm changing my tune. [specific complaints about the MS-DOS version deleted] There are a number of things to keep in mind about WordPerfect's user interface. First, it was developed before people had given a lot of thought to making user interfaces intuitive. Second, WordPerfect has tried very hard to make the interface consistent throughout their various implementations. Having learned WordPerfect on the Amiga and then used the MS-DOS version I have the same reaction Charlie Gibbs had. However, I tried to learn the function key shortcuts as I used the pull down menus. Even though the MS-DOS version is far less convenient than the Amiga version the function keys are the same. The main trick to using the MS-DOS version is to remember F3 is the help key. Press F3 twice to see what the other function keys do. --Fabbian Dufoe 350 Ling-A-Mor Terrace South St. Petersburg, Florida 33705 813-823-2350 UUCP: ...uunet!pdn!jc3b21!fgd3