themod@blake.acs.washington.edu (Chris Hinton) (10/10/89)
Hello you netters, I need some help. I need a good PD Word Processor. I have (gak!) 1st Word, but I hate it with a passion. I also think spending $100+ for any program is just plain stupid. Any suggestions? Chris Hinton ---- themod@blake.acs.washington.edu Mod Software Systems Seattle, Wa 98195 "Why didn't you tell me he had one of those... things?" - The Joker. "My life is really...complex." - Bruce Wayne. "Excuse me... What does God need with a starship?" - James T. Kirk.
silvert@cs.dal.ca (Bill Silvert) (10/10/89)
In article <3968@blake.acs.washington.edu> themod@blake.acs.washington.edu (Chris Hinton) writes: > > Hello you netters, I need some help. I need a good PD Word Processor. I >have (gak!) 1st Word, but I hate it with a passion. I also think spending >$100+ for any program is just plain stupid. Any suggestions? Why stupid? Good software takes time to write, and a decent commercial product can easily be worth more than $100. ST users are lucky -- the machine is easy to program, and lots of hackers like it, so we get super freeware in areas like communications. For text, you have lots of variants on emacs. But if you want the kind of applications software that people don't write for the fun of it, like dBASE and Lotus clones or desktop publishing packages, you have to pay a fair price. Fortunately this is usually a lot less than the MS-DOS or Mac versions. The attitude that paying for software is stupid is probably one of the reasons that there is little commercial support for the ST. -- Bill Silvert, Habitat Ecology Division. Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, NS, Canada B2Y 4A2 UUCP: ...!{uunet,watmath}!dalcs!biomel!bill Internet: biomel@cs.dal.CA BITNET: bs%dalcs@dalac.BITNET
coffey@ucselx.sdsu.edu (pat coffey) (10/11/89)
In article <1989Oct10.125136.19140@cs.dal.ca> bill@biomel.UUCP writes: >In article <3968@blake.acs.washington.edu> themod@blake.acs.washington.edu (Chris Hinton) writes: >> >> Hello you netters, I need some help. I need a good PD Word Processor. I >>have (gak!) 1st Word, but I hate it with a passion. I also think spending >>$100+ for any program is just plain stupid. Any suggestions? > >Why stupid? Good software takes time to write, and a decent commercial >product can easily be worth more than $100. I've had my Atari since almost day one (before 1st word was invented) and have used STwriter. It has been improved a lot, but is still part of the public domain. It is not a wysiwyg, but has a lot of features such as 2 column printing and mail merge. I still use it a lot. -- _ _ Ms. Pat Coffey |_) (_ San Diego State University | coffey@ucselx.sdsu.edu
hoang@rex.cs.tulane.edu (Dzung Hoang) (10/11/89)
Check out STWriter, a text-based WP from Atari! And it's FREE. Dzung Hoang -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- hoang@comus.cs.tulane.edu hoang@rex.cs.tulane.edu hoang@comus.UUCP hoang@rex.UUCP tulane!comus!hoang tulane!rex!hoang -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
robing@galadriel.bt.co.uk (Robin Gape) (10/11/89)
From article <1989Oct10.125136.19140@cs.dal.ca>, by silvert@cs.dal.ca (Bill Silvert) writes: > In article <3968@blake.acs.washington.edu> themod@blake.acs.washington.edu (Chris Hinton) writes: >> >> Hello you netters, I need some help. I need a good PD Word Processor. I >>have (gak!) 1st Word, but I hate it with a passion. I also think spending >>$100+ for any program is just plain stupid. Any suggestions? > > Why stupid? Good software takes time to write, and a decent commercial > product can easily be worth more than $100. > [deleted] > -- > Bill Silvert, Habitat Ecology Division. > Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, NS, Canada B2Y 4A2 > UUCP: ...!{uunet,watmath}!dalcs!biomel!bill > Internet: biomel@cs.dal.CA BITNET: bs%dalcs@dalac.BITNET Would you say that a car should cost no more than $100? or $1000? or $10000? Or a computer for that matter? No more computing surfaces, no more Bentley Mulsannes (have to save a lot of pennies just for the insurance on that one!) yet they are no less _replicas_ than some piece of software. You should be grateful that there is not more copy-protected and dongled software, and be grateful that somebody is prepared to earn their bread by supporting a 68000 machine of the future (immediate past, then) rather than an 8086 industrial relic! On the original question, the plus version of first word is much better, but still mildly eccentric, WordUp now allows intermediate font sizes (using GEM fonts) but is still only one column, and systems such as Wordperfect are much more sophisticated. Good luck in the hunt, anyhow! Robin Gape robing@uk.co.bt.galadriel
buchanan@grads.cs.ubc.ca (John Buchanan) (10/11/89)
In article <4077@ucselx.sdsu.edu> coffey@ucselx.sdsu,edu (pat coffey) writes: >In article <1989Oct10.125136.19140@cs.dal.ca> bill@biomel.UUCP writes: >>In article <3968@blake.acs.washington.edu> themod@blake.acs.washington.edu (Chris Hinton) writes: >>> >>> Hello you netters, I need some help. I need a good PD Word Processor. I >>>have (gak!) 1st Word, but I hate it with a passion. I also think spending >>>$100+ for any program is just plain stupid. Any suggestions? >> >>Why stupid? Good software takes time to write, and a decent commercial >>product can easily be worth more than $100. I am sorry. This reply is just to mild. Could the first poster please do a little arithmetic. I assume that you think that your time is worth some money. (Lets give you some credit) What about $1 an hour. Ok so this gives you 2 1/2 weeks to write a good word processor in. Ok, Ok, I can hear the flames now. 1) These people market in bulk and should be able to sell for cheaper. True, but with people with your attitude they are not able to sell many. 2) Some of these programs were written for other machines using common knowledge or public domain algorithms. (Yes I've heard this one to justify the stealing of Word Perfect (TM)) True, but they have taken the time to polish these algorithms and provide you the user with support. 3) I bought my Atari so that I could get cheap software. Ok, remember cheap software more often than not = poor soft- ware. Paying $100 dollars for software is not just plain stupid. There that should generate some heat. ============================================================================= John Buchanan buchanan@cs.ubc.ca Department of Computer Science University of British Columbia British Columbia Canada
gl8f@astsun9.astro.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl) (10/12/89)
In article <5229@ubc-cs.UUCP> buchanan@grads.cs.ubc.ca (John Buchanan) writes:
#>> [ someone else ]
#>>Why stupid? Good software takes time to write, and a decent commercial
#>>product can easily be worth more than $100.
#
#I am sorry. This reply is just to [sic] mild.
Can we talk about this somewhere else? I use several non-commercial
products which are better than corresponding commercial products in
the features that I *personally* find important -- TeX/LaTeX, gnu c,
gnu emacs (and micrognu), pgplot, et cetera. Different strokes for
different folks.
------
Greg Lindahl
gl8f@virginia.edu I'm not the NRA.hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu) (10/12/89)
In article <5229@ubc-cs.UUCP> buchanan@grads.cs.ubc.ca (John Buchanan) writes: >>>In article <3968@blake.acs.washington.edu> themod@blake.acs.washington.edu (Chris Hinton) writes: >>>> >>>> Hello you netters, I need some help. I need a good PD Word Processor. I >>>>have (gak!) 1st Word, but I hate it with a passion. I also think spending >>>>$100+ for any program is just plain stupid. Any suggestions? >3) I bought my Atari so that I could get cheap software. > Ok, remember cheap software more often than not = poor soft- > ware. Hm... WordUp is available for about $50. This is a pretty darn good word processor. I suppose "more often than not" is the key phrase here. While there certainly may be a lot of freeware/shareware/cheapware that's garbage, there's also a lot that's real good. (There has to be, or else people would stop using it, right?) > >Paying $100 dollars for software is not just plain stupid. Depends on the software package, I guess. I'd saying *paying* *any* money for a terminal emulator is stupid, with Uniterm around. Of course, a shareware donation wouldn't be out of the question... }-) On the other hand, paying $100 for a decent CAD program would probably be a bargain... It all depends... -- -=- PrayerMail: Send 100Mbits to holyghost@father.son[127.0.0.1] and You Too can have a Personal Electronic Relationship with God!
randyh@hpsad.HP.COM (Randy Hosler) (10/13/89)
> Check out STWriter, a text-based WP from Atari! And it's FREE.
Is it in one of the archives? If not, could you post it?
Randy ... Acquiring minds want to know.