home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- X-ZC-POST: Sachsenstrasse 94, D-26121 Oldenburg, Germany
- X-ZC-TELEFON: +49 441 882017
- X-Mailer: MicroDot 1.11beta16 [REGISTERED 00030a]
- Message-ID: <xcQdoMD30Aaez3@galdor.papa.north.de>
- Organization: Universitaet Oldenburg
- X-Gateway: ZCONNECT UB subetha.north.de [DUUCP BETA vom 30.03.1996]
- References: <woody-0904961439260001@woody.softwood.com> <4kof6b$1b5@news.tiac.net>
- From: galdor@papa.north.de (Carsten Labinsky)
- Subject: Re: Final Writer 5 Features
- Date: 14 Apr 1996 12:10:48 +0200
- Path: papa.north.de!galdor
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.applications
- Distribution: world
-
- In article "Re: Final Writer 5 Features"
- dmeyer@tiac.net (David Meyer) wrote:
-
- > Please define "professional".
- > FW, like most WYSIWYG WP/DTP packages, becomes a little clumsy when
- > used for larger documents. Particularly when you try to edit the earlier
- > part of a large document. This is somewhat true of any editor with even
- > the most minimal page formating features, like word wrap or page break,
- > but the WYSIWYG programs suffer more and those with a multitude of
- > features suffer even more. Using Sections helps - the program sees
- > multiple, shorter, virtual documents.
-
- I was not talking of speed but of *features*. FW's speed is
- acceptable to me (on an A4000/040 at least ;). My point was
- that FW's features do not meet the requirements for writing
- a larger document (let's say a 50-page scientific publication).
-
-
- > <FW6 wish-list snipped>
-
- Fine. Hope to see them implemented before I'll be forced to switch
- other platforms. :)
-
-
- > An upgrade fee of DM250? What's a DM worth these days?
-
- Sorry, if my statements were unclear. I bought the full version
- for FW4 for ~250 DM (~160 US $). No update.
- That's the price here in germany.
-
- > There are three types of changes from FW4 to FW5. Some are
- > roll-backs to an FW3-style implimentation. Some are the sort of tweaks
- > that we saw many of in FW2-FW4. Some are major enhancements. There are at
- > least as many major enhancements here as there were between FW1 and FW4.
- > IMHO. And don't think for a minute that an enhancement that is not major
- > is not significant. Those roll-backs most assuredly are significant.
-
- (BTW: if changes were not *significant* in any case, why make them? ;)
-
- I agree that the improvement-lists (1->4 vs. 4->5) are comparable in
- length and contents. But if you take the improvements as a whole
- (1->5) they aren't what *I* expect from an increase by 4 version-
- numbers (especially when considering the time that passed since FW1).
-
- I really do not want to make the improvements worse than they are.
- Their judgement simply is a point of view:
- - Comparing to other available word-processor(s) on the amiga, FW5
- still will be the better choice (IMHO).
- - Judging the improvements (4->5) alone, they're ok for this version.
- - Judging the feature-list to word-processors on other platforms
- (at comparable prices, to be fair), then FW5-features are *years*
- behind the state-of-the-art.
- - Looking at the task-requirements of writing a larger doc
- (containing more than just plain text) will reveal that there
- *are* severe limitations if speaking of usability (in terms of
- the upcoming ISO 9241, Part 10+11).
- If you ever tried this, you'll know what I mean.
-
-
- > : Much of the energy and money at Softwood seem to have flown to the
- > : Wind*ws-Port of FW. I really did not want *my* money to go that
- > : way when I decided to *buy* your software: I wanted to support
- > : one of the remaining sw-companies on the amiga and contribute
- > : to the creation of professional ami-soft.
- >
- > You have misunderstood the situation with FW'95.
-
- Maybe. Enlighten me...
-
-
- > : Even on the PC-Platform I would get a more functional PRG for my
- > : money, e.g St*rWr*ter for OS*2.
- >
- > I haven't seen the program you mention. Major WPs for the PC are
- > selling for well over US100 - unless bundled in much more expensive
- > packages. FW costs much less. -Upgrades- cost nearly US100. You may say
- > they offer more for the price. I would counter with the observation that
- > most of that "more" consists of features most people would never think of
- > using.
-
- I agree that FW4/5 contain those features that one needs in 80% of
- all cases. But what I am missing is a prg that can handle those 20%
- left. On the Amiga, of course. There's no such program available
- (if one doesn't want to *program* one's texts in TeX ;).If I had
- the choice, I would simply switch to a different product and wouldn't
- care about FW-features anyway.
-
- But please, don't tell me that linking the position of graphics to
- those of paragraphs, so that they're moved automatically is a feature
- that's not required. Primarily, I am not asking for additional features
- that would be nice to have, I'm asking for what I think is a *must-have*.
- BTW: My I-would-like-to-see-list is *much* longer. ;)
-
- As far as I see it, Softwood already *has* a light version of a word-
- processor which offers reduced functionality: FinalCopy. Right?
- Since I own an Amiga (~7 years now), I am waiting for a wp for the
- upper end. FinalCopy looked promising, FW1 was a first step to this
- direction - but since then, it looks a bit like stagnation to me.
- FW5 again makes some (significant, as you would say) progress,
- but it simply is not enough for supporting professional work.
- Maybe this is not the intended goal of FW, but I wish it was.
-
-
- > Let's wait until May 10th before we start our FW6 wish lists. Get
- > FW5 in our hands first before we start pleading for more. Woody & crew
- > were pretty good about the FW5 lists posted here.
-
- I didn't want to blame the creators/programmers for their work. They
- have my full respect (since I am quite familiar with the difficulties
- of software-development myself, being a student of computer-science ;).
- And I am well aware of the fact that Softwood is not Microtheft and
- has quite limited resources.
-
- They did a good job on creating FW, but time has passed and the baby
- has to become adult.
-
- Bye,
- Carsten.
-
- --
- _______ ___ ___ ____________________________________________________________
- | / // / InterNet : Carsten.Labinsky@Informatik.Uni-Oldenburg.De |
- | / // / Z-Netz : Galdor@PaPa.North.De |
- |___ _/_ // / Snail-Mail: Carsten Labinsky, Sachsenstr.94, |
- |\ \\ \/ / D-26121 Oldenburg, Germany |
- | \ \ / Phone : +49 441 882017 |
- \__\__/\__/__________________________________________________________________/
-