daveo@ohman.UUCP (Dave Oh) (01/28/89)
I have purchased Pagestream by softlogik almost one year ago. I've phoned every month, asking when it would come, and they would say, "next week". Now, a year later, and 12 phone calls from Kitchener, Ontario, Canada to Softlogik after the fact, I still have no Pagestream. I realize that there are problems in programming a package of this calibre, but I would rather someone from Softlogik tell me when it will really come. I would rather you say it would ome in two months, rather than next week. At least I won't bother bothering about it. After reading some news from here regarding this software, I would appreciate anyone from Softlogik's answer to my question. Thank-you. -- // Dave Oh PLINK: Dave*Oh \X/ Kitchener, Ontario UUCP: !egvideo!ohman!daveo
tim@mcrware.UUCP (Tim Harris) (02/24/89)
I have been reading about the bugs found in PageStream 1.0 which was recently shipped. I know someone who has PageStream for the Atari ST and also said that the version 1.0 of it was very buggy and crashed within a few minutes all the time. He now has the update of 1.5 and it seems like a fairly stable program and one of the best publishing packages I have seen on a small computer. I currently use PageSetter at home which is a big letdown from the FrameMaker I use at work on a Sun 3/50. PageStream seems much closer to FrameMaker and even has many features which FrameMaker does not, like full rotation of any object. He also said the output is great even on a dot-matrix printer compared to the other packages out there. Has anyone with PageStream 1.0 contacted Soft-Logick about the upgrade to it and when it will be available. On the ST my fried said it took a couple of months to get it out, I wonder if the time frame will be the same for the Amiga version. If you know of anything, I am interested. Tim Harris
daveo@ohman.UUCP (Dave Oh) (02/24/89)
In article <961@mcrware.UUCP>, tim@mcrware.UUCP (Tim Harris) writes: >He also said the output is great >even on a dot-matrix printer compared to the other packages out there. It is!!!! It uses scalable fonts, not bitmapped fonts, so you can flip, rotate, twist and size without _any_ jaggies. >Has anyone with PageStream 1.0 contacted Soft-Logick about the upgrade >to it and when it will be available. On the ST my fried said it took a couple >of months to get it out, I wonder if the time frame will be the same for the >Amiga version. If you know of anything, I am interested. Actually, I have version 1.5 for the Amiga. There are some minor quirks about the program I wasn't too fond of, like the slow interface, and the very buggy requestors. The requestors seldom work for me. When I select a path in the DIR: gadget, I get an empty requestor. Also, the manual isn't too good either. BUT after a full year of waiting, I think I have a pretty good program here. I've erased Pagesetter from my HD and erased PPage too. Despite all these bugs, I'm just happy that they've finally sent me the program. -- // Dave Oh PLINK: Dave*Oh \X/ Kitchener, Ontario UUCP: !egvideo!ohman!daveo || daveo@ohman.UUCP
wn0e+@andrew.cmu.edu (William Nichols) (02/25/89)
The Amiga Version of PageStream that shipped was 1.5. That just means that it is functionally pretty much the same as the released Atari ST version. I have used it a lot for the last couple of weeks, and all the features seem to work. It does have some bugs, and quirks. As far as bugs go, it probabely should have been released a little later, but I find it to be quite usable. The non PostScript fonts seem to print fine on a PS device, and the rotated text and object come in handy. My most serious reservation is that it does not yet have enough import modules, such as Aegis Draw format. Oh the other hand, it can incorporate EPS and MACEPS into documents. Bill Nichols wn0e@andrew.cmu.edu
wrk@alux2.ATT.COM (W. Kohler) (02/25/89)
I would like to share my experiences with the PageStream
package from SoftLogik.
First, the good points:
The 24 pin dot-matrix output is pretty good, almost laser
quality. The program has alot of nice features, such as the
graphics toolbox, and is fairly easy to use. I also like
the way you can drag and resize typefaces. The typeface
options are pretty good too, (shadow,mirror,reverse, etc.)
Now for the bad:
The program proved to be too buggy and unreliable to do any
'real' work. Within the first hour of having it, we locked
up the machine, and produced about two or three guru
meditation errors. The 'undo' has proven to be unreliable,
it does not always undo! We also had trouble importing and
exporting text (GURUS ABOUND!!!!!). The spell-checker is a
joke, and when we tried to add words to the dictionary,
GUESS WHAT?!?!? Wierd unexplainable lines appear on our
documents, but not on the screen. (WYSINQWYQ) What You See
Is NOT Quite What You Get!!!!!!! I also could not seem to
dump out a PostScript file, I needed both disks in the
drives, and the disk swapping strategy suggested to me by
the 'hotline' did not work. (I hope you have an auto-
redialer to try to get a hold of technical service!
AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHH!) In regards to the printing time, you
could die of old age waiting for your completed document!!
(approx. 15-30 Min.+ for ONE PAGE!!!)
Overall, the program would be great if it worked! I
personally get pretty pissed off paying my hard earned money
for a piece of software, and then being used as a beta
tester!!! This is bullshit!
I'm not holding my breath waiting for bug-fixes either.
This thing is going to be a bear to maintain! C'mon guys,
either get your act together or, change your name to:
"GURUS R US"!schwager@m.cs.uiuc.edu (03/01/89)
Sheesh, all this bitching about PageStream! I have but one thought on
the subject (as a fellow PageStream purchaser): after about 6 months of
waiting, I began to believe that just about *anything* was possible.
Let's face it, the writing was on the wall. I'm not surprised at all
that PageStream is as buggy as it is. I expected it. Mike's
prediction: the final major bug will be eliminated in Fall of 1992.
-Mike Schwager schwager@a.cs.uiuc.edu
-- {uunet,convex,pur-ee}!uiucdcs!schwager schwager%uiuc@csnet-relay.arpa
University of Illinois, Dept. of Computer Science