c9c-eh@dorothy.Berkeley.EDU (Warner Young (WHY)) (10/19/87)
Okay. This is my second-and-a-half review, sort of. (Just wait, it gets better!) Really, this is a collection of news items and rumors that I've uncovered, pursued, or just plain made up (just kidding). First, I saw a working version of Word Perfect 4.1 for the ST. It was on a color monitor; I didn't have a chance to see it run in mono. All I've got to say about it is, after having used it on an IBM PC AT, I think the ST version is S..L..O..W.....! Also, the GEM interface seems more like it was added to facilitate their own interface. I realize that this is so users familiar with it can use it right off, and so that a use can avoid having to use the mouse at all, but it really slows down the program. Plus, they chose to use some rather unusual colors; to reflect a time-consuming operation (I'm assuming that's what it was: the disk started going and never stopped until the salesman turned off the computer), they just changed the screen colors. Aside from that, I guess, if you're a real die-hard WP fan, you'll probably like it. If not, Word Writer ST, from what I hear, and what I've seen, would be a better buy. Oh yeah, WP comes with 7 disks. Blitter! ROMs! According to the salesman at this same store, the blitter upgrade will be a motherboard swap for 520 owners. It may be a routine chip attachment for 1040s, but 520s HAVE to have the motherboard exchanged. Who knows? Maybe this is true. Also, according to one guy, it's supposed to be in January; the other one said February. In a magazine I picked up, called ST X-Press, they printed a copy of Atari's manual for programming the blitter. According to this, the blitter is capable of the following: Area seed fill Rotation using recursive division (huh?) Slice and smear magnification Text effects (outlining, bold, etc.) Text scrolling Window updating (no, really?) I can only swear that this was what I read. I have no idea if it's true. I finally have pc-Ditto running, and it's really nice to see things like Word Perfect 4.2 running. It is just amazing what you can do with an ST, slowing it down to 4.7 Mhz PC speed. But, really, I am having fun with it, and will report more on it when I have more to report. I saw two more CAD packages in the stores: FirstCAD from Generic Software, and Athena II, from I don't remember. Both are supposed to be two dimensional CAD programs, and Athena II is supposed to support colors and all. FirstCAD, though, is, well, pretty generic in its packaging. I don't know any more about these yet, but as I've a friend who may be getting one soon, I should have something to report in the near future. \ / Disclaimer: I'm not associated \ /\ /arner with the latest revision \/ \__/ of SANITY. |oung \___| Last known address: dorothy.Berkeley.EDU!c9c-eh (I think)
trb@stag.UUCP ( Todd Burkey ) (10/20/87)
In article <4437@zen.berkeley.edu> c9c-eh@dorothy.Berkeley.EDU (Warner Young (WHY)) writes: > Blitter! ROMs! According to the salesman at this same store, the >blitter upgrade will be a motherboard swap for 520 owners. It may be a >routine chip attachment for 1040s, but 520s HAVE to have the motherboard >exchanged. If so (and Atari doesn't make any provision for all of us who have done on-board upgrades to one meg...over 3/4 of the ST owners that I know of in the Twin Cities) then Atari is going to lose a lot of loyal supporters in this area. Starting with me and most of the local ST developers and club members. > I saw two more CAD packages in the stores: FirstCAD from Generic >Software, and Athena II, from I don't remember. Both are supposed to be FirstCAD is great, but it has been out since last November...sounds like your store is a little behind... -Todd Burkey /* awr@tyb
jchiu@ccvaxa.UUCP (10/23/87)
Orignal posters' names omitted, because I only want to express my opinion, not to flame anybody. And I do hope that Mr. neil@atari notices this. >>... the blitter upgrade will be a motherboard swap for 520 owners. It >>may be a routine chip attachment for 1040s, but 520s HAVE to have their >>motherboard exchanged. > >If so (and Atari doesn't make any provision for all of us who have >done on-board upgrades to one meg...then Atari is going to lose a lot >of loyal supporters in this area. Starting with me .... If Atari acturally provides any upgrade path, they should be encouraged by all user community not discouraged by owners of private or third-party upgrades. Upgrade path is a lower priority service than hardware and software maintenance, and Atari has its right to choose what is upgradable. To me, including both original 520 and 1040 is a reasonable decision. If it offends the hardware hackers, then Atari stands the chance of losing some of them. For many other people like me, I want to say my welcome to this upgrade, and don't want to see this discouraged. On the other hand, I DO doubt whether this is a vapor promise from Atari. If they want to IMPROVE THEIR CUSTORM SERVICE as they said, they should do it (there is no overworked software engineer execuse involved here), and do it right, which means: 1. confirms that they will, or consider to, provide the upgrade, or at least denies openly that they won't do it to terminate the rumor. 2. when the time is right, publicize the schedule and the cost, which is another factor to their customer relationship (no 1 Mb chip price issue involved here). Uncertainty is the biggest complaint to Atari from customers and third-party. This is one of the few chances left that Atari can demonstrate themselves as a serious computer business. Jeff JanePing Chiu jchiu@gswd_vms.Gould.COM, ihnp4!uiucuxc!ccvaxa!jchiu working for but in way reflecting the official opinions of Gould, Computer System Division.