tbetz@lilink.UUCP (Tom Betz) (01/08/89)
As I was temporarily cut off from the net, I am reposting this request for information. I apologize for its recurrence... but need the information your replies might offer me. ---- We are considering the purchase of Southwind Software's AFFINITY Office Automation package. It would seem to fit the needs of our offices perfectly... but I know little about the company itself. Anyone who has experience with Southwind Software Inc. of Wichita KS, and with their earlier GRAFSMAN, TACTICIAN, EZGRAF and EZDRAW packages, I would appreciate your recommendations/warnings about them. Also, anyone who saw their AFFINITY package demonstrated at the Jake Javits UNIX Expo last November, your comments are also welcome. Thank you. If there is sufficient response/interest, I will summarize to the net. ---- -- | Tom Betz EAA# 48267 | ZCNY, 114 Woodworth Ave. tbetz@lilink.UUCP or: | Yonkers, NY 10701-2509 {..!philabs!mergvax! | ..!uunet!ispi!} lilink!tbetz | "Empty, try another."
brianc@daedalus (Brian Colfer) (01/14/89)
In article <169@lilink.UUCP> tbetz@.UUCP (Tom Betz) writes: >We are considering the purchase of Southwind Software's AFFINITY Office >Automation package. It would seem to fit the needs of our offices >perfectly... but I know little about the company itself. > They are small as you probably know but very responsive. I had a problem with a terminfo and they emailed and faxed a copy of the one they use for Wyse-50's. I like the company for the most part be a small shop they have both advantages and disadvantages when compared to a giant like Lotus. Their product isn't as slick but they are very responsive. >Anyone who has experience with Southwind Software Inc. of Wichita KS, >and with their earlier GRAFSMAN, TACTICIAN, EZGRAF and EZDRAW packages, >I would appreciate your recommendations/warnings about them. I have GRAFSMAN and TACTICIAN and I like 'em. They are not too expensive and the online help for tact is pretty good although it would be nice if they had a menu system for picking and choosing help items ala MicroSoft and Lotus. The tact data files are ASCII and I find this to be a BIG help ... if I want to use vi to do a massive global edit its easy! GRAFSMAN is more difficult to work with because its very dependent on working with graphic templates (predefined formats for types of graphs) rather than building them as needed from an application. These templates are based on some standard chart types that handles all the basic type of graphs and so building graphs inside the package isn't so bad. You can do anything inside this package but somethings are very tough... e.g. building complex org charts is a real pain since its not interactive... you specify that this box goes starts a x,y coordinates and is so wide and so high... etc. One very nice thing about GRAFSMAN is there grafcap stuff they use a device definition table much like termcap to specify how to draw a graph so I can easily switch the same graph from a tektronix 4010 to Epson to PostScript with a consitancy not found in some other packages. Also, its possible to define a new type of graphics device with out writing a device driver,etc. One more nice thing is that this method works very well with slave printer/plotters. Hope this helps =============================================================================== Brian : UC San Francisco :...!{ucbvax,uunet}!daedalus.ucsf.edu!brianc Colfer : Dept. of Lab. Medicine : brianc@daedalus.ucsf.edu : PH. 415-476-2325 : BRIANC@UCSFCCA.BITNET ===============================================================================