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Subject:      TidBITS#313/05-Feb-96
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TidBITS#313/05-Feb-96
=====================

Rumors flew this week, and the industry settled down with Corel as
   the new owner of WordPerfect and with Michael Spindler leaving
   Apple. Along with details on these events, we also have news
   about new versions of Netscape, FreePPP, and NetPresenz, as well
   as a look back at San Francisco's recent Macworld Expo and an
   enthusiastic review of CE Software's currently free WebArranger.

This issue of TidBITS sponsored in part by:
* APS Technologies -- 800/443-4199 -- <[e-mail]>
   Makers of hard drives, tape drives, and neat SCSI accessories.
   For APS price lists, email: <[e-mail]> <-----NEW!
* Northwest Nexus -- 206/455-3505 -- http://www.halcyon.com/
   Providing access to the global Internet. <[e-mail]>
* Power Computing -- 800/375-7693 -- <[e-mail]>
   Now shipping... The Award-Winning First MacOS Compatible!
   See what the press says! http://www.powercc.com/News/quotes.html
* America Online -- 800/827-6364 -- http://www.aol.com
   The world's largest provider of online services.
   Give Back to the Net -- http://www.aol.com/give/
* DealBITS: New deals and a KeyQuencer review this week <----- New
   http://king.tidbits.com/dealbits/ -- <[e-mail]>

Copyright 1990-1996 Adam & Tonya Engst. Details at end of issue.
   Information: <[e-mail]> Comments: <[e-mail]>
   ---------------------------------------------------------------

Topics:
    MailBITS/05-Feb-96
    Amelio Sits Down in Spindler's Chair
    More Macworld Superlatives
    WebArranger Handles More than the Web
    Reviews/05-Feb-96

ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/issues/1996/TidBITS#313_05-Feb-96.etx


MailBITS/05-Feb-96
------------------
  I wanted to comment quickly that we're aware of the passage of the
  Telecommunications Reform Act and of the furor surrounding some of
  its wording. Until we've had a chance to investigate more
  seriously, though, we didn't want to write about it. More soon -
  in the meantime, consider checking out the protest pages below.
  [ACE]

http://www.cdt.org/cda.html
http://www.eff.org/blueribbon.html


**Corel Buys WordPerfect** -- Last week, Corel Inc. purchased
  Novell's business applications division for $115 million in cash
  and stock, considerably less than the $1 billion Novell paid for
  WordPerfect and Quattro Pro less than two years ago (see TidBITS-
  302_). Corel plans to integrate their flagship graphics software
  with WordPerfect applications in a challenge to Microsoft Office -
  a phrase that's becoming a broken record in the industry. Corel
  CEO Michael Copland declined to comment on the future of the Mac
  version of WordPerfect, although he denied reports WordPerfect
  will abandon Mac development. However, reports to TidBITS indicate
  Novell's WordPerfect Mac division was down to just four people by
  Macworld Expo in San Francisco, which makes one wonder how Corel -
  a company with little experience developing Mac software - plans
  to acquire the resources necessary to pursue Macintosh
  development. [GD]


**Apple Demos Mac OS on PPCP** -- At Demo 96 last week, Apple
  demonstrated a development version of the Mac OS running on a
  prototype computer built to PowerPC Platform (PPCP)
  specifications. (See TidBITS-304_.) Machines built to the PowerPC
  Platform spec can theoretically run any operating system designed
  for the platform, and Apple, Sun, IBM, Microsoft, and others have
  announced plans to support it. The prototype, built by IBM, ran
  mainstream Power Macintosh applications and used third-party
  peripherals. Apple said a final release of the Mac OS for the
  PowerPC Platform should be available in the second half of 1996,
  with the first Macs based on the spec appearing in 1997. Potential
  Mac OS licensees see support for the PowerPC Platform as an
  important part of Apple's licensing strategy. [GD]


**Netscape 2.0 Released** -- Netscape released the final version
  of Netscape Navigator 2.0 last weekend, with few apparent changes
  from beta 6 released a few weeks ago. The archive is about 2.5 MB
  in size; once again, the installer will attempt to launch Netscape
  and connect to a set of registration pages when installation is
  complete, potentially causing problems if more than one version of
  Netscape is installed on your machine (see TidBITS-311_).

ftp://ftp.netscape.com/2.0/mac/Netscape2.0Installer.hqx

  As anticipated, Java support is not included in the final
  Macintosh release. Rumor suggests beta releases of Netscape
  Navigator 2.1 will be available for the Macintosh in a few months,
  and it should include preliminary Java support. Netscape has also
  released the first beta of Navigator Gold (with HTML authoring
  tools) for Windows, but not for the Mac or Unix. [GD]


**FreePPP 1.0.5 Available** -- Steve Dagley has released version
  1.0.5 of FreePPP, which now scrambles stored passwords (although
  it doesn't encrypt them), uses resource-based strings for tone and
  pulse dial commands (for folks with ISDN terminal adapters who may
  need to modify the strings), and fixes a few bugs. Steve expects
  version 2.5 of FreePPP to be available in March, so if you don't
  need features or fixes in 1.0.5, it's probably fine to stick with
  your current PPP configuration. [GD]

ftp://mirror.aol.com/pub/info-mac/comm/tcp/conn/free-ppp-105.hqx


**And Now, NetPresenz!** Peter Lewis <[e-mail]> has
  released NetPresenz 4.0, a major upgrade and name change from FTPd
  3.0. The name change comes in response to the fact that NetPresenz
  is now a full-featured Web server that supports CGI scripts in
  addition to the FTP and Gopher capabilities of past versions. Also
  new is support for Open Transport, which will probably improve
  performance by a noticeable amount. NetPresenz remains $10
  shareware, and it is a free upgrade for anyone who registered FTPd
  since 01-Jan-95; previous users may upgrade for $5. If WebSTAR or
  InterServer Publisher is too pricey for your blood, NetPresenz's
  $10 shareware fee is one of the best deals around. [ACE]

ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/tisk/tcp/web/net-presenz-400.hqx


**And This Just In...** Two notable items from Apple today; first,
  Apple announced price cuts ranging from $100 to $300 on some
  PowerPC-based Performa models, in addition to Apple's Power
  Payback program already underway (see TidBITS-312_). Second, Apple
  and the Open Software Foundation announced a project to port
  Linux, a freely distributed version of Unix, to Power Macintosh.
  The port will operate on the OSF Mach microkernel, and an early
  prototype was shown at the demo. [GD]

http://product.info.apple.com/pr/press.releases/1996/q2/
960205.pr.rel.prices.html
http://product.info.apple.com/pr/press.releases/1996/q2/
960205.pr.rel.osf.html


Amelio Sits Down in Spindler's Chair
------------------------------------
  by Mark H. Anbinder, News Editor <[e-mail]>

  Just days after Apple Computer chairman A. C. Markkula told
  concerned shareholders that Apple's Board of Directors supported
  Michael Spindler, the board "agreed that it was in the best
  interest of Apple Computer to have a transition in leadership."
  Last Friday evening, Apple's board announced the replacement of
  company president Michael Spindler, effective immediately, by
  National Semiconductor boss Gilbert Amelio. In an unprecedented
  move, Amelio was also named chairman, giving him solid control
  over the company. Markkula, one of Apple's founders in 1977, will
  continue to serve as vice chairman.

  The move comes on the heels of a string of changes at Apple
  following last quarter's significant financial loss (which came at
  the same time Apple shipped more Macs - including over a million
  based on PowerPC technology - than in any other quarter in its
  history, totalling sales of over $3 billion). Among the changes
  were a major restructuring announced in mid-January, with goals of
  a reduced staff and a consolidated use of financial resources in
  markets that have traditionally seen duplicate efforts. Rumors of
  an impending merger or acquisition resurfaced last month as well,
  with Sun Microsystems discussed as a suitor in the pages of
  publications such as MacWEEK, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek,
  and the New York Times. (See recent TidBITS issues for details.)

  In response, Apple has created an Apple Americas organization from
  the separate Apple USA, Apple Canada, and Apple Latin America
  divisions under Jim Buckley, Apple USA's president. Though
  technically a regional change, Apple Americas should provide a
  major component of the required streamlining. Apple announced last
  Wednesday that Buckley's management team would include Apple
  veterans Mike Dionne, Terry Crane, and Mike Lorian as senior vice
  presidents of the Business Markets Division, Education Division,
  and Consumer Division, respectively; this group will be
  responsible for the lion's share of Apple's marketplace. (Lorian's
  appointment is described as an acting position.)

  Spindler, a German engineer who helped Apple break into the
  European market in the late 1980s, replaced John Sculley in 1993,
  about ten years after Sculley took the place of Steve Jobs. In
  each case, the CEO's departure could not be described as voluntary
  or happy.

  Amelio has clearly taken to heart the title of his recent book;
  Profit from Experience, co-written with Bill Simon, chronicles
  Amelio's transformation of the National Semiconductor Corporation
  into a leaner, more profitable business. Since he joined the
  company in 1991 as president and CEO after leaving his president's
  post at Rockwell International, Amelio has been credited with the
  company's dramatic reversal of fortune, including record earnings
  the past two fiscal years. (The company lost money in eight out of
  the eleven years prior to his arrival.) Just last July, Amelio was
  elected chairman of National's board.

  Amelio is no stranger to Apple; he has served on the company's
  board of directors since last year, and Apple has long been a
  National Semiconductor customer. At the same time, Amelio has been
  serving on the board of Pacific Telesis and is on the board of
  governors of the Electronics Industry Association.

  The challenge before Amelio is to accomplish what Apple has been
  struggling to do since profit margins began to drop precipitously
  a few years ago: focus product lines and markets to maximize
  profit margins, while reducing costs. Apple's loss last quarter,
  despite record sales (both in unit volume and dollars), clearly
  shows that the company must change the way it does business in
  order to stop losing money.

  It's not likely to be an easy transformation for Apple; Amelio's
  successes at National came at the expense of thousands of layoffs,
  closed divisions, and shut down factories. At least the stock
  market seems to think the changes will be good for Apple. Even
  though Apple didn't release an official announcement until after
  the U.S. financial markets had closed, Apple stock traded heavily
  on Friday, closing at $29.25, up 88 cents, on the strength of
  National Semiconductor's 8:30 AM announcement of Amelio's
  departure and the quick spread of the unofficial news.

http://product.info.apple.com/pr/press.releases/1996/q2/
960202.pr.rel.amelio.html


More Macworld Superlatives
--------------------------
  by Charles Wheeler <[e-mail]>

  [We don't have room for every comment we received about Macworld
  Expo, but we just had to make an exception for this list. -Adam]

  You'll read about the "important" stuff in all the trade rags and
  online 'zines. Here's some of what really happened at Macworld
  Expo a few weeks back.


**Biggest Presence on the Show Floor** -- Power Computing. Many,
  if not most, of the machines on the floor were theirs, not to
  mention the big, loud, video wall. Next year's buy-out rumor will
  probably be Power Computing buying Apple.


**Hottest Party** -- Dantz. Literally, the hottest party. Held at
  the Cartoon Art Museum, this packed event overwhelmed whatever air
  conditioning there may have been. If not for the great food,
  refreshments and conversation, I'd have left. Glad I didn't.


**Other Biggest Presence on the Show Floor** -- The Web. Every
  vendor was hawking its application as a Web tool. "Known us for
  years as a [database / spreadsheet / word processor / graphics
  application / floor wax]? Well, surprise, we're really a Web site
  builder!"


**Best Deal** -- Fujitsu. The company offered formatted 128 MB
  optical disks for $5 each. That's about four cents per megabyte. I
  bought ten, or 1.25 GB, for $50.


**Best Party** -- NEC. (The MetaTools party, while impressive, was
  a little too hip for its own good, and the free mixed drinks
  inspired many meaningful but incoherent conversations. I found the
  free shuttle buses a nice touch, though.) The NEC party hit on all
  counts: Great food (hors d'oeuvres, chili dogs, gelato, and more),
  great drinks (free beer, wine, soft drinks, and coffee), great
  location (the Gift Center Pavilion atrium), great music (D'
  Cuckoo), great t-shirts, great lighting and sound, and even a
  great cause (NEC awarded Shriners Hospitals $25,000 at the event).
  About the only thing missing was sex. Which brings us to...


**Best Breakfast** -- Well, actually, it was the only industry
  breakfast I attended - English company Dorling Kindersley's
  introduction of their latest CD-ROM, Anne Hooper's Ultimate Sex
  Guide. Appropriately, eggs and sausages were served. Or, as the
  British say, bangers.


**Best Demo** -- Global Village, Friday, 11:25. The demo consisted
  of the demo guy and an actor who played, at various times during
  the demo, a Deadhead, a computer nerd, and an artsy French person.
  What made this particular session amazing was the audience. First,
  a guy stepped up and juggled the spongy globes Global Village was
  tossing to (and at) the crowd. Then, the demo guy got a snappy
  dialog going with a man in the audience. (Demo Guy: "The hottest
  thing going right now is the Internet. You, sir, you look like an
  Internet user. What to you use it for?" Man: "To waste time.") But
  the demo turned into hilarious improv when the woman pulled from
  the crowd to help with the demo turned and kissed the actor
  portraying the nerd. Both of the presenters barely recovered
  enough to finish. But recover they did, and brilliantly, weaving
  in and out of the prepared script. Major kudos to the presenters.

  Personally, this was the best Macworld ever for me. Best people,
  most fun, best food, best ride (stretch limo to North Beach), most
  centrally located hotel. Oh yeah, I spent less money than my last
  three visits, and I even lost five pounds walking around. (Or
  maybe I just sweated them off at the Dantz party). I was
  thoroughly and joyfully exhausted.

  Must have been the sex breakfast.


WebArranger Handles More than the Web
-------------------------------------
  by Matt Neuburg <[e-mail]>

  Recently, an amazing program I'd never heard of rescued me from a
  quicksand of information I couldn't store and retrieve
  effectively, and from a quagmire of outliners, databases, contact
  managers, and calendars that couldn't help me. What's more, this
  program - on which I now rely totally - and about which I shall
  herein proceed to rave intemperately is currently **free**.


**Looking for Trouble** -- The problem started when I switched
  from academia to business, and my needs changed drastically. I no
  longer wanted to store and retrieve only text (lectures and facts)
  or simple sets of items. I now edit a magazine, and I need to
  track prospective articles and their authors.

  Suppose John Doe sends me email with an idea for an article on
  programming the Mac's Widget Manager. [A fictional component of
  the Mac Toolbox - we hope. -Geoff] Under an outline topic
  "Proposed Articles" I would put a sub-topic "Doe, John" (to go
  with other authors who had proposed articles), and under that a
  sub-sub-topic "Widget Manager" (to go with anything else he might
  propose). I also wanted further information for each topic, so I
  used IN Control and added columns for an email address, a
  miscellaneous memo, and the date we had corresponded, ending up
  with something like this:

Topic                 Address           Memo         Date
-------------------   ---------------   ----------   --------
 Proposed Articles
   Doe, John          [e-mail]
     Widget Manager                     good idea!   1/4/96

  But there's big inefficiency here: lots of empty space. After the
  outline (in the first column) I have three additional columns:
  address, memo, and date. Yet the address column is only used with
  the author's name, and I'm using the memo and date columns only
  with the article title, so there are gaps in the outline. This is
  ugly and error-prone: it's up to me, the user, to remember what
  each line represents, and to leave the address column blank after
  an article title.

  Why such inefficiency? Because I'm trying to hierarchically
  arrange two different kinds of entities (three kinds, if you count
  the "Proposed Articles" header) where each kind has its own set of
  fields. But IN Control knows nothing of this.


**Enter WebArranger** -- WebArranger is really Arrange, a program
  produced by Common Knowledge Inc. during 1991-93 or so. I never
  heard of it then; but recently, CE Software picked it up, and
  until 16-Feb-96 is giving it away as a URL hoarder. They adapted
  it for this purpose using a plug-in module for talking to
  Netscape, importing its bookmark and history files, and tracking
  changes to Web sites. Ignoring the Web and URL features, though,
  WebArranger is at its core a miraculously ingenious program.

http://www.cesoft.com/webarranger/waregform3.html

  One caution: if you're like me, you won't understand WebArranger
  right away. It took me hours to grasp the basic metaphors and
  realize what was happening. If you can't find an old Arrange
  manual, you can download the Help file; it's quirky and outdated,
  but better than nothing. This article will help too, though the
  terms I'm using are not the official terminology (as I find the
  latter opaque and confusing).

ftp://ftp.cesoft.com/pub/Software/WebArranger/Arrange_Help.sea.hqx

  With WebArranger, you define entities you want to store, and each
  entity has its own set of fields. Then you can build an outline in
  which any topic or subtopic can be any of those entities. For my
  example above, I might define a Header entity, an Author entity,
  and an Article entity. To facilitate display and navigation of the
  outline, WebArranger uses a summary line where each entity
  occupies a single line built by WebArranger according to a format
  you define. When you click a summary line, the entity expands to
  show each field, labelled and arranged vertically. You can also
  double-click to expand the entity into a window of its own (to
  avoid shoving lines off screen). So, my outline now works like
  this (everything but the three summary lines - which I've marked
  with an asterisk - would usually be hidden):

 * Header [summary line, "Proposed articles"]
   Header name: Proposed Articles
    * Author [summary line, "John Doe"]
      First Name: John
      Last Name: Doe
      Email: [e-mail]
       * Article [summary line, "Widget Manager... 1/4/96"]
         Title: Widget Manager
         Comments: good idea!
         Date: 1/4/96

  WebArranger builds on this metaphor of fields in entities in
  outlines, in ways so useful that my co-workers complain about my
  screaming "Yes!" and jumping from my chair with delight. To avoid
  repetitiveness, please imagine me saying "But wait! There's still
  more!" before each of the next several paragraphs.

  To help you store massive amounts of information, WebArranger
  provides a second, higher tier of outlining. Every outline of
  entities - such as the one we've just constructed - lives in a
  sub-folder which lives in a folder; i.e., a two-level
  organizational outline. This organization is shown at the left
  edge of the window, and clicking a sub-folder displays its
  contents in the main part of the window. So, I can have a folder
  called Business with two sub-folders inside it, Articles and
  Authors.

  One benefit of this organization is that one author can be
  associated with more than one article. To save you from needless
  multiplication of entities (let's hear it for Occam's Razor),
  WebArranger lets you clone any entity, which is like making an
  alias to it elsewhere in the document. All the clones are
  identical and changes made to one are instantly reflected in all
  of them. So I can clone my author, John Doe, into the Authors
  sub-folder, and use that sub-folder as a repository of clones of
  all authors. Then, if any existing author proposes another
  article, I can clone him or her from the Authors repository when I
  make my entry in Articles.

  Let's make another change. WebArranger allows entities to have
  link fields. A link field contains one or more entities (letting
  you store an entity within an entity), and those entities can be
  clones. This lets me restructure my entities so that the Author,
  instead of being a separate line of the outline, appears as a
  field of the Article, like this:

 * Header [summary line, "Proposed articles"]
   Header name: Proposed Articles
    * Article [summary line, "Widget Manager... 1/4/96"]
      Title: Widget Manager
      Link field: * Author [summary line, "John Doe"]
                    First Name: John
                    Last Name: Doe
                    Email: [e-mail]
      Comments: good idea!
      Date: 1/4/96

  Since a link field can contain any number of clones, this also
  solves the problem of articles having more than one author. In
  practice, it's also better to structure my fields in this way
  because link fields provide automatic look-up. If I create a new
  Article entity, a box pops up when I tab into its Author link
  field, where I type the last name of the author. The Author entity
  with that last name is then cloned automatically into the link
  field.

  Conversely, to make my Authors sub-folder an effective repository
  of all Author entities, I can set it to auto-clone Author
  entities, any time an Author entity is created, a clone of it is
  automatically placed in the Authors sub-folder. Now, when I make a
  new Article entity and tab its Author link field and type the
  author's last name, if that Author entity already exists, it is
  automatically cloned into the Author link field (because the link
  field is set up to do this), and if not, I create it in the Author
  link field and it is automatically cloned into the Authors sub-
  folder (because the sub-folder is set up to do this).

  All entities have certain "system fields" which are filled out
  automatically by WebArranger but are not shown unless you want
  them - for instance, the date and time this entity was created,
  and the date and time it was last modified. This feature is a
  godsend when you're using WebArranger as a contact manager. I've
  created an entity type called MemoDated, consisting of a text
  field and the entity's creation date. Each time an exchange about
  an article occurs, I make a new MemoDated entity and make it a
  subtopic to the article. This gives me dated records of the
  history of contacts concerning that article.


**Queries and Views** -- As you accumulate large amounts of data,
  you can query it in useful ways. One such way is to examine an
  outline using sorting and matching criteria. For instance, my
  auto-cloning Authors sub-folder grows in no particular order, but
  I generally want to look at it sorted by Last Name and First Name
  - and, on occasion I might add a matching criterion too, for
  instance looking at just those Authors who have no email address.
  A set of criteria for sorting and/or matching is called a View,
  and the rules for every View are automatically saved with the
  outline in a handy pop-up menu. A View shows either all the lines
  of the outline or just those which are of one specified entity
  type, and can combine this with a "table" structure where rows are
  entities and columns are fields (like a typical database browse
  window).

  A View can also display as a calendar: you tell WebArranger what
  date field is relevant, and it puts the summary line for each
  entity into the right calendrical location. You can show a month
  at a time, a week at a time, or a day-book, and though there are
  some limitations the interface is remarkably flexible, in some
  ways beating even dedicated calendar programs like IN Control 3.5.

  I can't possibly describe all of WebArranger's abilities here, so
  let me hasten through a brief concluding miscellany. There is a
  good Find feature which is remarkably fast. A Gather feature lets
  you collect clones of all entities that meet specified criteria. A
  Goto dialog lets you jump to a different sub-folder by typing the
  first few letters of its name. You can have multiple windows on a
  document. An Alarms feature turns any date field into an active
  reminder; WebArranger does not have to be open for the reminder to
  work (an extension handles it), and you can turn it off, "snooze"
  it for a specified time, or go to the corresponding item in your
  WebArranger document. A "grabber" control panel lets you copy the
  current selection in any program for later reference; again,
  WebArranger does not have to be open, and your "grabbed" items are
  imported into a designated home document the next time you open
  WebArranger.


**Room to Grow** -- There are things about WebArranger that could
  stand improvement. It's not for keeping large texts in (a field
  can hold a maximum of something like 10K). The outliner has
  deficient keyboard navigation. Certain actions have the side-
  effect of deselecting your current selection, which is counter-
  intuitive and causes you to lose your place. Also, export and
  printing are not great.

  WebArranger is one of those programs that is picky about where you
  click. Clicking a summary line expands it, clicking its triangle
  shows or hides its sub-entities, and clicking its icon selects the
  entity itself. If you're like me, you're sure to miss much of the
  time.

  Perhaps WebArranger's biggest flaw is when you want to examine the
  deep levels of entity types and field definitions. For instance,
  you can find out what a given sub-folder is auto-cloning (though
  not easily), but you can't find out in general what sub-folders
  are auto-cloning what sorts of entity. Similarly, you can learn
  all the names of all the fields used by all entities at once, but
  you can't find out what entity uses any particular field.

  CE Software plans to make WebArranger part of a forthcoming
  DayVision product suite, but I wouldn't count on an interface
  improvement. Remember, this is CE, makers of QuicKeys (which
  offers a crummy interface to some pretty great software, although
  it's badly in need of an upgrade) and of QuickMail (which - in my
  opinion - is atrocious software with an interface that gets worse
  with each upgrade).

  Nonetheless, the release of WebArranger as a freebie is a
  wonderful gift. This program saved my bacon when I needed to take
  notes on discussions I had at Macworld Expo, and is now my primary
  contact manager. The program makes large amounts and many sorts of
  data easy to arrange and navigate; in fact, you're tempted to keep
  your whole life in one gigantic document. If handing this program
  out for free is a hook to make me pay for a chain of upgrades, I'm
  a delighted addict.

    CE Software -- 800/523-7638 -- 515/221-1801
      515/221-2258 (fax) -- <[e-mail]>


Reviews/05-Feb-96
-----------------

* MacWEEK -- 29-Jan-96, Vol. 10, #4
    FileMaker Pro 3.0 -- pg. 25
    QuickStream/3  -- pg. 25
    Personal Maclan Connect 5.51 -- pg. 28


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