ahj1@quads.uchicago.edu (andrew howard jaffe) (06/02/91)
Well, now that system 7 is here I want to get one of thoseSF(Get/Put)file extenders: ShortCut or Boomerang. I hear the SW version of Boomerang is kaput forever in 7, so I'm curious as to what the consensus on the 2 commercial products is. Is one obviously better? Is it worth getting NOW Utilities just for Super Boomerang? Also, here's a completely misposted question (I apologize): when responding to an article on the net, how do you "quote" the original? Thanks in advance, Andrew Jaffe
samuels@halibut.nosc.mil (Lawrence J. Samuels) (06/02/91)
I use Shortcut. Aladdin Systems was wonderful enough to send us a SYstem 7 version the week of May 13 - what timing! The Sys7 version is 1.5. I have mixed feeling about it - mostly because I've turned on their 'Bounce Back' feature that keeps you at the same place in a long list the next time you open an 'Open' dialog box. This feature is useful but slow. There are a number of good tools to Shortcut - it retains a list of recently visited folders so you can get back to them easily, as well as letting you create your own lists of commonly used folder/files/volumes. It's lets you trash (delete) files, and now there's the feature of writing 1s/0s over a file to really delete it. If you own Stuffit (Deluxe, I think) you can use Shortcut meny items to stuff/ unstuff on the fly. Nice product but I feel about it the way I do about Stuffit Deluxe - lots of features, but most that I don't use. Someone else should add more positive comments than I.... Larry Samuels samuels@nosc.mil
dana@are.berkeley.edu (Dana E. Keil) (06/03/91)
I'm a real Boomerang fan and think it would be worth the money to get NOW utilities just for Boomer (although I've been using Boomerang since it was freeware, paid the shareware fee when it went shareware and now have the upgrade to SuperBoomerang that comes with the NOW utilities). I'm not familiar with the Alladin product, does it have the ability to open files through a submenu that pops out when you mouse on Open... in any application? If not, that makes Boomerang the winner in my opinion -- I use that one all the time (in addition to many of the other neat features). -- Dana E. Keil Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics dana@are.berkeley.EDU University of California, Berkeley
ace@tidbits.UUCP (Adam C. Engst) (06/03/91)
I have both Super Boomerang and ShortCut 1.5 and will be doing a comparison of them for TidBITS at some point soon. My basic impression is that you won't go wrong with either one. If you use StuffIt archives to store files a lot, ShortCut will be more helpful. On the other hand, the hierarchical Open menu that Super Boomerang creates is wonderful. Keep in mind that you do get the rest of the Now Utilities with Super Boomerang, and although a number of them aren't as useful with System 7, Now is a good company and is committed to the package. Look for some cool stuff from then at some point soon. cheers ... -Adam --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adam C. Engst Editor of TidBITS, the weekly electronic Macintosh journal ace@tidbits.uucp The best way to predict the future pv9y@crnlvax5, pv9y@vax5.cit.cornell.edu is to invent it. -Alan Kay
pejacoby@mmm.serc.3m.com (Paul E. Jacoby) (06/04/91)
In article <1991Jun2.150413.11444@midway.uchicago.edu> ahj1@quads.uchicago.edu (andrew howard jaffe) writes: >Well, now that system 7 is here I want to get one of >thoseSF(Get/Put)file extenders: ShortCut or Boomerang. I hear >the SW version of Boomerang is kaput forever in 7, so I'm >curious as to what the consensus on the 2 commercial products >is. Is one obviously better? Is it worth getting NOW Utilities >just for Super Boomerang? I use SuperBoomerang, and have been using Boomerang since the 'early days'. This is by far the best Shareware money I have ever spent. I have also used ShortCut (beta-tested 1.5), and I SuperBoomerang wins hands down. The main thing I like about SB is keyboard shortcuts! One key to move to the previous folder in the list, and SNAPPY speed while doing it. SB's "Bounce Back" is quick and painless; ShortCut's is slow. Organzation is better in SB, and menus in the SFDialog are a boon to productivity. All my opinions, of course. I'd have to hesitate on whether the NOW Utilities package is worth the money JUST for SuperBoomerang. There are a couple of other useful utils in there, so I'd probably vote "yes" if you can get it relatively cheaply.
mo@well.sf.ca.us (Maurice Weitman) (06/06/91)
But first, I digress...
When Stuffit first surfaced, I paid my shareware fee to Ray Lau,
along with a note thanking him for the program. Later, I sent
Hiro Yamamoto the fee for Boomerang. Until Aladdin started
distributing Stuffit, and wanted me to buy Stuffit Deluxe, I
heard nothing from them. Mr. Yamamoto, on the other hand, sent
me a postcard confirming my registration, then at least one, and
I believe two, diskettes with free upgrades to Boomerang,
including a version of Super Boomerang. Last week, Mr. Yamamoto
published a cdev to make SB compatible with System 7 and CE
Toolbox 1.6. He did this on his own, apparently with the
permission of Now. Here is a man who is both proud of his
product, as he should be, and responsible enough to make it easy
to use it on an ongoing basis. He is my Hero, pun intended.
I eagerly await the upgrade to Now Utilities, which I believe
will make the lives of all System 7 studly users much nicer.
Now, to compare Super Boomerang with Shortcut, you really should
use them both, as I have. The feel of SB is very smooth and
seemless. Shortcut seems clunky and slow. Its integration with
Stuffit is a nice feature which I don't need. SB has a very nice,
and addictive, hierarchical Open menu, along with other features
that make it indispensible to me. For the week or so that I was
running System 7 without it, I really felt the loss.
When evaluating software, one should also include consideration
of the attitude and practices of its developer and publisher, and
there's no comparison between the two in this case. I don't know
what Now was like before Mr. Yamamoto's influence, but they're
tough to beat.
--
Maurice Weitman mo@well.sf.ca.us ..!{hplabs,pacbell,apple,ucbvax}!well!mo
| <- this is not a pipe 1634 Walnut Berkeley, CA 94709 (415)549-0280
Quote: "Facts are stupid things." Ronald Wilson Reagan, New Orleans, 1988
Disclaimer: Any errors in spelling, tact or fact are transmission errors.kreme@isis.cs.du.edu (Dave Sim's Ugly Brother) (06/07/91)
In article <25250@well.sf.ca.us> mo@well.sf.ca.us (Maurice Weitman) writes: >Now, to compare Super Boomerang with Shortcut, you really should >use them both, as I have. The feel of SB is very smooth and >seemless. Shortcut seems clunky and slow. Its integration with >Stuffit is a nice feature which I don't need. SB has a very nice, >and addictive, hierarchical Open menu, along with other features >that make it indispensible to me. For the week or so that I was >running System 7 without it, I really felt the loss. Geee... if you took all these posts about SB and SC and replaced "Super- Boomerang" with "Compactor" and "ShortCut" with "StuffIt" it would just about sum up my opinions on those two programs as well.. I can't stand Stuffit and will delete any files uploaded to my board that are not packed with Compactor. Compactor is faster and smaller. Unpacking a Sys7 FDHD image took FORTY-FIVE minutes in the background. Compactor packed it in 4 minutes and saved over 200K off Stuffit's "Best" (and was working in the background the whole time). Why do people use Stuffit at all? But I digress... back to the point at hand.. Is there anyway to get Super Boomerang without the Now utilities? I'm sorry, but $75 mail order is a little steep, and nothing else in Now sounds interesting or useful. -- | kreme@nyx.cs.du.edu |The Coven BBS (303) 777 2911 PCP via CODEN Stalr*nk too| |---------------------|100 Megs of storage. Areas for IBM/MAC/Apple. Games. | | Coming Soon: Zmodem, Supertac 7.0, HST 14.4K Modem! | | Currently Running on a PPI PM9600SA, V.32, V.42bis! |
ccmlh@buitc.bu.edu (Mark Hayes) (06/10/91)
>... I can't stand >Stuffit and will delete any files uploaded to my board that are not >packed with Compactor. This is absurd. It's like saying "I won't sell any books in my bookstore that aren't printed on acid-free paper". Isn't the quality of the contribution more important than the efficiency of the program that compressed it? Jeez.