moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Meyer) (12/12/88)
Ashton-Tate came to the Seattle dBUG (Downtown Business User's Group) to
talk about their two products Full Impact (a free-format spreadsheet) and
Fullwrite Professional (their powerful, but flawed, word processor which I
use). They had some information on new features in FullWrite, and some
scheduling info. I have some complaints about their presentation, and a
personal gripe with Ashton-Tate, but I will keep them seperate from one
another, and divide this article into three parts: news on FullWrite (I paid
little attention to the Full Impact part of the presentation, as I am not a
spreadsheet user), a critique of their presentation, and a small comment on
my personal dealings with Ashton-Tate.
NEWS ON FULLWRITE PROFESSIONAL:
The product manager for FullWrite, Marty Keaveny, was there to talk about
the product. She emphasized that FullWrite was an evolving project that
Ashton-Tate had long-range plans for, and that A-T had just brought on one
of the main Ann Arbor software engineers who was responsible for much of
FullWrite's design on board, along with a programmer from Apple whose name I
didn't recognize.
As to plans for FullWrite in the future, she said that first, there was some
sort of "maintentance release" planned for January for FullWrite owners (I
assume something like FWP 1.1), though no particulars of what would be
changed were mentioned. She then began to discuss a few of the goals for
FWP 2.0, which included:
* Running within 1 Megabyte of memory.
* Tables (good move -- Word 4.0 is going to get points for their tables)
* Easier use of sidebars -- dragging them around on the document was
mentioned (yeah!).
* Color
* Formula support (I was rather surprised by this)
* "Hot links" to Full Impact
* Automatic Revision system (neat!)
During a question and answer period later in the presentation, I asked what
improvements might be made to speed; they said they were "looking into
this." (Marty Keaveny later told me that the acutely slow backspacing in
FWP was a known bug; I was given the impression that this, at least, would
be fixed in the near future.) When I asked about more powerful custom
styles, with the ability to base styles on other styles and indicate "Next
Styles", an A-T represenative said "Well, we don't want to be a clone of
Word." I agreed that I didn't want FullWrite to be a clone of Word, either,
but that I did want move control over custom styles.
When discussing a possible release date for FWP 4.0, Keaveny said it was
currently scheduled for the end of the second quarter of 1989.
Someone asked if the documentation would be improved with the next release;
they mentioned that an expanded book on FullWrite would be available from
book stores in December. Apparently they are taking Microsoft's example in
this category.
ASHTON-TATE'S PRESENTATION:
Ashton-Tate paid half of the tab for a very snazzy room and good eats, and I
was impressed and appreciative of the pampering, but I also think that A-T
could have put a bit more thought into their presentation. They opened up
with a five-minute slide show that reminded me of a corporate presentation
for a stockholders meeting -- photos of A-T's new headquarters and plugs as
to a list of new programmers they'd brought on board. Plus a lot of
repetious sloganizing -- "At Ashton-Tate, we're putting the Magic back into
the Machines." O-Kay.... The people around me (mostly business users,
graphic designers, etc.) were looking impatient.
Secondly, the presenters (at least of FWP) could have been more knowledgable
of the product they were discussing. Keaveny seemed a bit rusty during her
demonstration of FullWrite, which was a surprise as she is the Product
Manager for the application. More importantly, I ended up correcting the
A-T represenatives about FullWrite during the Q&A session, when one of them
claimed that TIFF and EPS graphics could be inserted into sidebars. I
pointed out that EPS images could be used with the "background" option in
printing, but that they could not be inserted into sidebars or picture
elements.
On the plus side, Keaveny was very helpful in answering some of my questions
about FullWrite (finally figured out how to use floating sidebars placed
outside of the margins), taking time to call me several times after the
meeting with the information I was looking for, which I appreciated greatly.
And Ashton-Tate certainly didn't scrimp with door prizes -- they raffled off
several copies each of FWP and Full Impact.
Over-all, it was an interesting meeting, but in regards to FWP, things
seemed a bit raw.
A PERSONAL GRIPE
As some of you may remember, I collected a lot of your
comments/complaints/suggestions about FullWrite several months ago, editted
them and mailed them to the Ashton-Tate's manager for Macintosh products. I
haven't heard anything from them regarding the document since then, so I
re-editted it and handed it to Marty Keaveny at the meeting, also mentioning
that I would be interested in beta-testing FWP 2.0, since I used FWP 1.0
almost exclusively (I am thinking of switching to MS Word 4.0 when it comes
out, though...). A week or two ago, I was called back and told that I
should re-write my request for being a beta tester for FullWrite on Fluke
letterhead stationary -- and that I might be ineligable because they were
under the impression that I was beta-testing Word 4.0.
Well, excuse me, but I fail to see why corporate stationary would have any
more impact on a beta testers' ability to test a product, especially after
he's taken the trouble to send in a prioritzed suggestion/bug list in the
first place. And why would testing Word have any impact on testing FWP?
(Especially since I only use MS Word when I have to.)
Since I would be testing FullWrite 2.0 on my own time, and not Fluke's
(though it is used by employees of the company), I've decided against it;
guess I'll just have to wait until FWP 2.0 comes out to get a glance at it.
"Sure, you're right, it's easy to find flaws.
`Sure,' America says to the critic, `it's easy to
tear down, but you can't build up, can you? The
suffering and labor of the artist mean nothing to
you, do they Mr. Ian Shoales? You don't believe
in anything,' America screams, `except the sound
of your own voice!' Well, calm down, America.
Lighten up. Unclench those hardworking fists."
-- Ian Shoales
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
INTERNET: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM
Manual UUCP: {uw-beaver, sun, microsoft}!fluke!moriarty
CREDO: You gotta be Cruel to be Kind...
<*> DISCLAIMER: Do what you want with me, but leave my employers alone! <*>dgold@Apple.COM (David Goldsmith) (12/13/88)
In article <6280@fluke.COM> moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Meyer) writes: >... More importantly, I ended up correcting the >A-T represenatives about FullWrite during the Q&A session, when one of them >claimed that TIFF and EPS graphics could be inserted into sidebars. I >pointed out that EPS images could be used with the "background" option in >printing, but that they could not be inserted into sidebars or picture >elements. This is true, but I should point out that for some time we have been encouraging application developers to embed PostScript inside PICTs, which are a data format almost every program understands. We put out a tech note on how to do it (Position-Independent PostScript, #183), and some applications already generate such pictures (Adobe Illustrator is an example). A coworker of mine successfully used both PostScript and TIFF images in FullWrite by putting them through Illustrator. If more apps generated PICTs directly, the intermediate step wouldn't be necessary. -- David Goldsmith Apple Computer, Inc. AppleLink: GOLDSMITH1 BIX: dgoldsmith 20525 Mariani Avenue, MS: 46B UUCP: {nsc,dual,sun,voder,ucbvax!mtxinu}!apple!dgold Cupertino, CA 95014 CSNET: dgold@apple.com