wrp@krebs.UUCP (01/23/88)
Having spent the last week learning how to draw two relatively simple figures with Cricket Graph v1.2 (12/15/87), I would like to share my experiences with several drawing programs, the state of which makes some comment about Mac Software. Although my graphs are relatively simple, in order for the data points to be clearly resolved from the axes, I wanted to plot the data and then move the axes for clarity. In addition, I wanted to plot six sets of data, two against one axis and four against another, so the easiest strategy seemed to be to make two graphs, and then combine them in some way. The Cricket Graph manual clearly shows how Cricket Graph + MacDraw is a very powerful combination, so I tried that first, and it worked pretty well, although I had a difficult time getting the x-axis to line up exactly. One problem though, whenever I clicked on a data point plotted as a circle, the program bombed. Since I sometimes had overlapping datapoints, and then wanted to move a specific data point to the back or to the front, this was a problem when the data point was a circle. (MacDraw 1.9.5) This does not happen for square or triangular data points. So, how about another drawing program - Cricket Draw has received excellent reviews, and I want to plot my figure on a Laserwriter, so lets see. It did not bomb on the circles, but I could not figure out how to change the size of text. (This was a demonstration at a dealer's, he didn't know how to do it either and could not find a manual, so no BOLD, different fonts, etc Cricket Draw v 1.01, 2/87). Well I said, how about if I fix things with Cricket Draw, then put out a PICT file and do some more work with MacDraw. No go, the Cricket Draw PICT file has a lot of extra junk that MacDraw won't remove. Well, the first program I purchased for my Mac was SuperPaint, and it has a little magnifying glass that makes it really easy to do detailed work, so lets try that. SuperPaint is OK, by my graphs have labels on the vertical axes that are vertical, and SuperPaint can't handle them - it shows them as horizontal. No problem, I can go back to MacDraw to fix that. SuperPaint does not blow-up when I click on circle data points. But unfortunately, although SuperPaint will group objects and copy them from window to window, so that I should be able to combine two graphs, when I try it with my graphs the program hangs. Perhaps the objects were two complex, because the process worked for simple groups of things. So finally, to make the perfect graph, I plot it in two graphs with Cricket Graph, then bring the two pieces together imperfectly with MacDraw, then align them perfectly with SuperPaint and check that all of the datapoints overlap correctly, then go back to MacDraw to finish up the axis-labels. This seems a little complex just to draw a simple graph with 18 data points. (6 sets of 3). I would like: (1) A MacDraw that doesn't bomb with circles (or a Cricket Graph that draws circles that don't bomb MacDraw). (2) A Magnifying glass for MacDraw (3) A SuperPaint that can rotate text, and that can copy complicated objects. I should note that the list price of Cricket Graph is almost $200, MacDraw is another $200 or so, and I understand that SuperPaint just went up to $150. Where I live, if you want someone to help you figure out how to get the programs to work, you have to pay list price. I think that $500 is a lot to pay for a program that will draw publication quality graphs, especially when it takes hours of time to get all of the required programs to work together to get the final result. (I didn't even discuss the bugs I found in Cricket Draw, because it appears that the copy that I bought from MacConnection has problems that Cricket knew about, but thought they had fixed before shipping the product.) The Macintosh is a wonderful machine, especially the large screen/fast MacII, and I am convinced that in a few years it could take over desk-top computing. Multifinder is amazing - the DOS people will similar multitasking and graphics for 5 years or more. But it must be very hard to write high-quality software for the Mac. Cricket Draw is a best selling program, as are SuperPaint and MacDraw. But they are all buggy. Not so good for people seeking computers for the rest of us. (I wonder what people did before the programmer's switch became standard.) Bill Pearson wrp@virginia.EDU
bill@utastro.UUCP (William H. Jefferys) (01/25/88)
In article <299@krebs.acc.virginia.edu> wrp@krebs.acc.virginia.edu (Wm Pearson) writes:
~ I would like:
~
~ (1) A MacDraw that doesn't bomb with circles (or a Cricket Graph
~that draws circles that don't bomb MacDraw).
~
~ (2) A Magnifying glass for MacDraw
~
~ (3) A SuperPaint that can rotate text, and that can copy
~complicated objects.
~
~ I should note that the list price of Cricket Graph is almost
~$200, MacDraw is another $200 or so, and I understand that SuperPaint
~just went up to $150. Where I live, if you want someone to help you
I got Canvas just a few days ago, and although I haven't had a lot
of experience with it, I am so far very pleased with it. The only
drawback with it so far is that you have to convert MacDraw format to
PICT format to read it in. But it has (1) a large selection of
magnifications, (2) Ability to change fonts/styles/sizes within a
text box, (3) Can rotate any object, including text, through an
arbitrary angle, (4) Bezier curves and polygon smoothing, (5) mixing
of bitmaps (arbitrary resolutions) and object-oriented drawing in the
same picture. It's a well thought out package and I have found it easy
and intuitive to use so far. I got it from MacConnection for $119.
It comes in both a DA and application version, although the DA doesn't
have all the features of the application.
Bill Jefferys
--
Glend. I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
Hot. Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you
do call for them? -- Henry IV Pt. I, III, i, 53