ralph@mit-atrp.UUCP (Amiga-Man) (08/27/87)
An unfortunate realization:
It seems that the presence of Aegis Draw and Draw Plus has blocked the
market for new versions of object oriented drawing programs.
This is a shame.
Although Draw Plus is roughly O.K. for driving a plotter, it is
poor on the screen and very poor on a dot matrix printer.
The primary problem is with its use of "stroke fonts" instead of using
properly scaled raster fonts. I realize that such a choice is perhaps
a good one for driving plotters, but most of us want to use
our cheap, multi-purpose, dot matrix printers for output, and most of the time
we'll be looking at the version on the screen. Thus, an intelligent raster font
scheme is better. And it oughta use Amiga fonts so I can design my own
heavy duty math fonts.
Now, I don't want to make folks angry, but any intelligent developer
who's considering creating an object oriented program ought to take
a long, hard look at...dare I say it?....MacDraw. Yep. This baby does
most of the job correctly. Now, why hasn't anyone brought out such a
program for the Amiga ? Bank bucks on it folks....it would sell better
than Aegis Draw Plus, because it would better address the average persons
needs. Don't get me wrong, Draw Plus is fine for a drafting house with
a D size plotter (and a 68020 souped up Amiga), but for me trying to
make figures for a technical paper it just plain fails. I tried real hard to
use it, because the advantages of object oriented drawing are great.
I just couldn't get useable output, and the screen fonts looked unreadable.
A shame.
I hope I have induced some developer, or budding developer, to consider
creating such a product. Oh, and while you're at it, give it a postscript
output mode too, so it can drive a laser printer.
Just think how useful this program would be. I had hopes for Aegis Draw
but they have been dashed. I'm now grumbling and using dpaint II, which
although it isn't object oriented, does give me clean IFF pictures.
But, oh, the cutting and pasting to rearrange drawings is brutal.
I hope this is the right forum to suggest such ideas....
(Yup, I'd pay $$$ for it too).
I want "AmigaDraw",
Ralph
P.S: And while I'm grumbling, don't make the program *insist* on using
4 bit planes ! I may want to use 2 ! Or maybe even 1, if I don't have alot
of memory. Don't be a hog like Aegis Draw and demand 4 bit planes.
Say bye-bye to chip memory when you run hi-resolution !
"The CHIP-memory Preservation Society".mark@unisec.UUCP (08/30/87)
In article <1492@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>, ralph@mit-atrp.UUCP (Amiga-Man) writes: > > An unfortunate realization: > It seems that the presence of Aegis Draw and Draw Plus has blocked the > market for new versions of object oriented drawing programs. > This is a shame. ...more... Very well stated, Ralph - Amen. -- | Mark R. Rinfret, SofTech, Inc. mark@unisec.usi.com | | Guest of UniSecure Systems, Inc., Newport, RI | | UUCP: {gatech|mirror|cbosgd|uiucdcs|ihnp4}!rayssd!unisec!mark | | work: (401)-849-4174 home: (401)-846-7639 |
richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) (08/31/87)
In article <1042@unisec.usi.com> mark@unisec.usi.com (Mark Rinfret) writes: >In article <1492@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>, ralph@mit-atrp.UUCP (Amiga-Man) writes: >> >> An unfortunate realization: >> It seems that the presence of Aegis Draw and Draw Plus has blocked the >> market for new versions of object oriented drawing programs. >> This is a shame. > >...more... > >Very well stated, Ralph - Amen. > >-- >| Mark R. Rinfret, SofTech, Inc. mark@unisec.usi.com | OH, I dont know. Draw+ is a CAD package. MacDraw is a drawing package. They are different. Just because Videoscape 3D exists doesnt mean that nobody's going to buy the whole slew of other animation or 3D packages. (No flames about V3D, yes its a bitch to use, but it was the first out, and IS quite spectacular, esp. for rendering speed) When somebody asks me "whats the best 3D animation package for the Amiga", I always fall back on Bill Volks answer: "There isnt one. If you are serious about this stuff you'll get 'em all" Just as you wouldnt want to use Draw+ for simple drawing, you sure as hell wouldnt want to use MacDraw (nice as it is) for serious CAD work, using big plotters. If there's room for both Aegis Images and Dpaint, then surly there is room for a simple draw package. I'd buy one. -- Richard Sexton INTERNET: richard@gryphon.CTS.COM UUCP: {hplabs!hp-sdd, sdcsvax, ihnp4, nosc}!crash!gryphon!richard "It's too dark to put the key in my ignition..."
cheung@vu-vlsi.UUCP (09/01/87)
I would have to agree with the general objection to the existence of only CAD/CAM type object oriented programs for the Amiga. Currently I feel most users would want a piece of software that can crank out text and graphics together. Don't worry about color since it will be a while till people can afford color laser printers or lithographers. All I really want is a document writer with the text editing power of WordPerfect, and the ability to integrate graphics smoothly as in Lotus' MANUSCRIPT, with the power and ease of Adobe's drawing package to do its graphics. Most certainly such a piece of software or grouping of software might be huge memory hogs and expensive, but when it comes down to getting serious work done faster and more efficiently most people don't care. Want proof just look at the users who think that the IBM PC family is the best and only micro-computer in existence. (sorry for grammatical errors, I don't know how to use the vi editor yet so I can't correct mistakes) I recall many situation this past Summer while working inside the NRC of one worker trying to enlighten me on the dazzeling power of WordStar on this rinky dink IBM-PC with 640K two 360K disk drives, and a amber monitor. Of course, being nice I tried to look semi-interested-- deep inside I was chuckling away. Then I looked on his desk at two calenders. Upon closer look, gee this looks like it came from a dot matrix printer! And the calender I'd say was drawn with 240 dpi density and the different sized lettering was very crisp and clear. So I asked him what desk top publishing software he was using. He promptly pulls up a $40 package made by some unknown, maybe even bankrupt, developer. That put a blunt damper on my chuckle. Wilson Cheung I'm still a student and have stuck with Commodore because money's tight. But when I graduate I'll being some serious bucks and will be less concerned with best computer for the money but rather the best computer and software period. Commodore and its developers had better keep my interest because there are probably many others like me, most who think the word personal computer was a word coined after the introduction of the IBM PC.