khayo@sonia.math.ucla.edu (Eric Behr) (06/02/88)
After unBinHexing the Technote index I got a FullWrite
file. Am I required by law to own it in order to read
the notes? :()
(I feel silly asking the question, because I'm not even
close to being a developer, but I still think it sucks;
are there any *good* reasons for abandoning MacWrite?)
Ericjmm@thoth4.berkeley.edu (06/02/88)
Why even put out tech notes in MacWrite, much less FullWrite? What's wrong with just plain text files? James Moore | B'fhearr don net mura mbeadh jmm@bartleby.berkeley.edu | Bearla ar bith ann. #airigh "leithsceal caighdeanach" | :-)
jcc@ut-emx.UUCP (J. Chris Cooley) (06/03/88)
In article <10493@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>, jmm@thoth4.berkeley.edu writes: > Why even put out tech notes in MacWrite, much less FullWrite? What's > wrong with just plain text files? Because the Tech Notes look prettier than just plain text. Every wordprocessor for the mac has the MacWrite format as one of its importing formats. Besides, even if you haven't bought an application that will read MacWrite, there exist both a de-macwrite-ify utility and a few shareware/PD things that will read in the MacWrite format and maybe even print it out in the MacWritely "beautiful" form. > James Moore | B'fhearr don net mura mbeadh > jmm@bartleby.berkeley.edu | Bearla ar bith ann. > #airigh "leithsceal caighdeanach" | :-) -- J. Chris Cooley | husc6! -\ Computation. Center (COM 1) | im4u! -->-ut-sally!ut-emx!jcc Univ. of Texas at Austin | uunet! -/ Austin, TX 78712 |
mls@whutt.UUCP (SIEMON) (06/03/88)
In article <568@natinst.UUCP>, brian@natinst.UUCP (Brian H. Powell) writes: > In article <10493@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>, jmm@thoth4.berkeley.edu writes: > > Why even put out tech notes in MacWrite, much less FullWrite? > Because, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words... One problem is that MacWrite is no longer an integral part of a Macintosh; we have, in effect, Apple touting for Claris. I am in full agreement with the need for diagrams in tech notes, but I observe that e.g. my copy of WriteNow has some difficulties importing some illustrated MacWrite files. No format converter is going to be perfect (consider putting the new color PICT2 files into a document -- whatever may be true of NEW versions of some word processors, old ones won't handle them.) The cost of tech notes now has a hidden cost for at least one purchase of a (possibly expensive) word processor -- and may require multiple purchases if the format used by Apple changes over time. (Has this been the case? is the format frozen???) This posting is not mere complaint: I (a new Mac owner) am in fact about to plunge for the set of tech notes from APDA, and I DON'T KNOW whether I can read the disk versions! As I said, I have the current version of WriteNow; I don't want to buy MacWrite (old or new) or WordPerfect or FWP or any other while the editor wars are as heated as they now are. Any advice? Oh yeah; one other point. I have Turbo Pascal as my toy introduction to Mac programming and am planning to get MPW 3/C++ when they arrive. Does that seem sensible to anyone? -- Michael L. Siemon contracted to AT&T Bell Laboratories ihnp4!mhuxu!mls standard disclaimer
darryl@ism780c.isc.com (Darryl Richman) (06/04/88)
In article <568@natinst.UUCP> brian@natinst.UUCP (Brian H. Powell) writes: >In article <10493@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>, jmm@thoth4.berkeley.edu writes: >> Why even put out tech notes in MacWrite, much less FullWrite? What's >> wrong with just plain text files? > Because, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. It's nice >when they can include a diagram of some sort to explain themselves. It also >lets them use various fonts to highlight certain things. You can't do that >with a plain text file. All of this discussion misses the point of the original poster (whose remarks are now lost here) -- why use FullWrite when there are a substantial number of people that don't own and may not need this expensive word processor. MacWrite format is a standard, and as was pointed out elsewhere, nearly all word processors can import MacWrite documents. But the same is not true of FullWrite. Has Apple decided that FullWrite is the new standard word processor for the Mac? --Darryl -- Copyright (c) 1988 Darryl Richman. The views expressed are the author's alone. INTERACTIVE Systems Corporation -- An Eastman Kodak Company ...!{kodak | cca!ima | sdcrdcf}!ism780c!darryl or darryl@ism780c.isc.com "I'm disappointed too, but keep in mind that Transmogrification is a new technology." --Calvin
nagel@ics.uci.edu (Mark Nagel) (06/06/88)
In article <10518@ism780c.isc.com> darryl@ism780c.UUCP (Darryl Richman) writes: +In article <568@natinst.UUCP> brian@natinst.UUCP (Brian H. Powell) writes: +> Because, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. It's nice +>when they can include a diagram of some sort to explain themselves. It also +>lets them use various fonts to highlight certain things. You can't do that +>with a plain text file. + +All of this discussion misses the point of the original poster (whose remarks +are now lost here) -- why use FullWrite when there are a substantial number +of people that don't own and may not need this expensive word processor. I got the feeling that someone detached from reality in some dark corner somewhere got the task of preparing the index and thought it would be nifty to use FullWrite. What I really don't understand is why Apple doesn't release the technotes or at least the index in a HyperCard stack. HC was built for indexes (well, not only indexes, but it certainly does a good job). Mark D. Nagel Department of Information and Computer Science, UC Irvine nagel@ics.uci.edu (ARPA) I'm not a graduate student, {sdcsvax|ucbvax}!ucivax!nagel (UUCP) but I play one on TV...
blknowle@uokmax.UUCP (Bradford L Knowles) (06/07/88)
In article <10493@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> jmm@thoth4.berkeley.edu writes: >Why even put out tech notes in MacWrite, much less FullWrite? What's >wrong with just plain text files? > >James Moore | B'fhearr don net mura mbeadh >jmm@bartleby.berkeley.edu | Bearla ar bith ann. >#airigh "leithsceal caighdeanach" | :-) Perhaps Dennis Cohen has been moonlighting at Apple? -Brad Knowles UUCP: ...!ihnp4!occrsh!uokmax!blknowle ARPA: blknowle@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu SNAIL: 1013 Mobile Circle Norman, OK 73071-2522 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Philosophy of Boris Yeltsin: "If one wants to be unemployed, one will criticize ones' boss. If one wants to be sent to Siberia, one will criticize the wife of ones' boss." -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Disclaimer: (The above opinions are my own. They have nothing to do with the Univeristy of Oklahoma nor intelligance of any sort. :-)
dan@Apple.COM (Dan Allen) (06/07/88)
> >Oh yeah; one other point. I have Turbo Pascal as my toy introduction to >Mac programming and am planning to get MPW 3/C++ when they arrive. Does >that seem sensible to anyone? >-- >Michael L. Siemon >contracted to AT&T Bell Laboratories >ihnp4!mhuxu!mls >standard disclaimer Turbo Pascal is NOT a toy, but it a very reasonable development environment. MPW is another very reasonable development environment. It happens to be about 12 times larger and slower, but also has about 50 times the number of features. (Those are very rough estimates done on the fly) If you just want to write a few small apps and desk accessories, Turbo should be fine. If you plan to write something BIG, or want to port Unix stuff, or have several people working on the same chunk of code, then MPW is pretty essential. The LightSpeeds are pretty good too. In our multilingual world I find that I need and use Turbo and MPW day in and day out, so your plan seems sensible. Dan Allen Software Explorer Apple Computer <#disclaimer.h>
tim@ism780c.isc.com (T.W."Tim" Smith, Knowledgian) (06/10/88)
Note that the FullWrite demo version will print the index. That's all
we seem to have here at ISC, and it works OK as long as you don't mind
a large gray "FULLWRITE DEMO" ( or something like that ) plastered
across each page of the index.
--
Tim Smith tim@ism780c.isc.com
"I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the
kind of person I'm preaching to" -- J.R. "Bob" Dobbsdudek@csri.toronto.edu (Gregory Dudek) (06/17/88)
I may feel stupid after this, but are you sure the technotes were *really*
in fullwrite format? Without thinking, I pumped them through
w2t | troff
on our SUN and they came out just fine. Now the index, maybe, but unless
FullWrite & MacWrite are *very* similar, maybe just the signature byte
looked like fullwrite's?
Greg Dudek
--
Dept. of Computer Science (vision group) University of Toronto
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