ephraim@think.COM (ephraim vishniac) (05/05/88)
I got a box from Claris this morning with MacPaint 2.0, MacWrite 5.0,
and MacProject II 1.0. MacPaint's new features look good, MacWrite's
new features are amusing, and MacProject has at least one cosmetic
bug.
MacWrite's biggest new feature is a "built-in" spelling checker. Sort
of. It *does* check spelling, but it's *not* built in. It's just
kind of tacked on. Here's what happens when you check spelling:
1. The spelling checker resizes the active window so that it
doesn't overlap the area where the spelling window will
open. Automatic window resizing? Not exactly Macish, but
it has to do this because (as a tacked-on kluge) it has
no control over the scrolling of the main window. It
insists on placing its own window at the bottom left of
main screen, even when there are acres of unused screen
available.
2. It opens the "Find" dialog offscreen, where the user shouldn't
see it. It has to do this because (as a tacked-on kluge)
it can't locate words in the document any other way.
"Offscreen" is only a short distance to the left of the
main screen, which happens to be onscreen for the second
monitor of the system I was using. Very tacky.
3. It does a "Select All" and "Copy" to get the text of the
document into the clipboard. Again, it doesn't have any
direct access to MacWrite's data structures, so it can't
get the text any other way. As a side effect, this wipes
out the clipboard contents without warning. Ouch. Do a
"Show Clipboard" before checking spelling to watch this
action.
4. It does the actual checking against the clipboard contents,
using the Find dialog to locate and highlight words in the
real document. It's not smooth, but it works.
MacProject II is much less entertaining. For a simple bug demo, try
this: Display the top left portion of one of the small samples on
your 19" monitor. You'll have all of page one and part of page two
(which is blank) on the screen. Use the layout menu to adjust the
chart size down to one page. Except for the portion that was covered
by the chart size dialog, page two remains white until the next time
the whole screen is redrawn. The part that was covered turns to
desktop pattern, just as the rest of the page should. No real problem
here, but it looks bad.
Ephraim Vishniac ephraim@think.com
Thinking Machines Corporation / 245 First Street / Cambridge, MA 02142-1214
On two occasions I have been asked, "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put
into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?"