NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #20

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Internet Message Format | 1992-09-12 | 46.2 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!haven.umd.edu!mimsy!dtix!darwin.sura.net!wupost!gumby!destroyer!ubc-cs!unixg.ubc.ca!kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca!ee.ualberta.ca!jpenne From: jpenne@ee.ualberta.ca (Jerry Penner) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: GEnieLamp Sept 1992 [4 parts] Message-ID: <jpenne.716322203@ee.ualberta.ca> Date: 12 Sep 92 18:23:23 GMT Sender: news@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca Organization: University Of Alberta, Edmonton Canada Lines: 927 Nntp-Posting-Host: eigen.ee.ualberta.ca This is GEnieLamp, from the GEnie Information Service. It is being posted to the Internet by request from Tom Schmitz, one of the A2 editors of GEnieLamp. This is part 3 of 4 parts. ---8<------8<------8<------8<--- cut here ---8<------8<------8<------8<--- [WHO]////////////////////////////// WHO'S WHO / ///////////////////////////////// Who's Who In Apple II """"""""""""""""""""" >>> CHATTING WITH GARY UTTER <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ~ Apple II Guru ~ GEnieLamp > Gary, how did you first get interested in the Apple II """"""""" computer? Gary Utter > Back in the early days, a friend of mine who was in the Navy """""""""" left his black Bell and Howell II+ clone here while he was on sea duty and stationed in Japan. I played with it a bit, but after finding a bug in Wizardry that let me build up an incredible number of character points in an hour or so, I kind of lost interest. When my wife decided, back in '87 or '88 that she needed a computer for her small business, I looked at Apples first, because I was SLIGHTLY familiar with them. I also looked at IBM (clones), Macs, and Amigas. I settled on the Apple because it seemed to have the best support, most ease of use, and because I had friends who had Apples. I did not, however, BUY an Apple, I bought a Laser 128EX. It seemed silly to spend the money for an Apple IIc when the Laser was just as good and half as expensive. (And I still feel that way. :) GEnieLamp > At what point did you realize that your casual hobby had """"""""" evolved into something more than a "casual hobby"? Gary Utter > When, in the course of 3 weeks, I had spent well over 150 """""""""" hours "getting the computer set up" for my wife, and when I had gone out and purchased an additional meg of memory (just before the big price jump), a mouse, a printer, additional disk drives, literally hundreds of blank floppies, etc. At that point, I decided that my best course was to upgrade, and I took the Laser back to the dealer and swapped it (and a bunch of cash) for a GS. I was still trying to be cheap, so I didn't get a 3.5 drive. :) Over the course of the next five months, I upgraded from 1 meg of memory to 3.75 megs on a RamKeeper, added an Apple 3.5 drive, replaced my Laser drives with Apple brand 5.25s, upgraded to a color printer, and finally, at the end of the five months, got a used ProFile 5 meg hard drive. After that, it was all over, my "enhancement curve" went vertical. :) Somewhere in there (at about the 2 month point, as I recall) I got a modem and accounts on The Source, CIS and GEnie. That REALLY pushed me over the edge. :) At that time, I was running a combined bill on those services in excess of $300 a month, and I was spending ALL of it combing through the Apple II areas for information and downloads. (No time for Chat, no time for Games, just information and more information. :) I am now up to a 5 meg GS, with Rev D RamFast, 240 meg Quantum, 44 meg Syquest, a pair of 3.5 drives, Magnavox color monitor (larger and brighter than the Apple), Zip GS (only 8 mhz though), 9600 baud USR modem, DeskJet printer, and tons of software. Expense wise, it has been ugly, but fun. GEnieLamp > In the past few years, Gary, you've assumed a leadership """"""""" position in the national Apple II community. Please tell us a little about how this came about. Gary Utter > Simple, I read everything I can get my hands on, """""""""" (electronically speaking), and forget very little of it. I experiment with the information when it is appropriate (just because I want to KNOW) and I seem to be able to synthesize it well. I'm not afraid to ask questions, and, more importantly, in terms of the question YOU asked, I'm not afraid to answer questions. GEnieLamp > What do you consider your most proud accomplishment? Gary Utter > Being one of the best police dispatchers in the US. :) """""""""" GEnieLamp > Who do you look up to as your mentors? Gary Utter > Loren Damewood, David Winograd, Marc Farnum Rendino, and a """""""""" bunch of the regulars on MAUG. Due to the lack of a front end for GEnie (i.e. a 16 bit front end, specifically CoPilot), I was a lot more active on CIS than on GEnie during my "formative years" online. Now that I have CoPilot, I am a lot more active here than there. GEnies pricing has something to do with that, as GEnie is more active these days than CIS. I've been trying to persuade "the guys" from CIS to come on over here, but so far without much luck. I tend to go where the action is, which is to say (no offense to GEnie) that if CIS was busier than GEnie, I would probably spend more time there than I do here (that just applies to A2, of course). But, I wouldn't cut back on my time here, just spend more time online overall. GEnieLamp > Gary, you've been very active in the Apple II Roundtable on """"""""" GEnie, answering questions and leaving pithy messages on a regular basis. Where do you see the future of telecommunications moving in the next five to ten years? Gary Utter > Hmmm, I can't really answer that. I don't see any """""""""" SIGNIFICANT change coming, just incremental improvements (widespread availability of 9600 access, better front ends, etc). It is likely that there will BE some significant change, but it is not something that I can predict. GEnieLamp > What sorts of things do you like to do for fun (i.e. non- """"""""" computer hobbies)? Gary Utter > For fun? I like to sleep. """""""""" GEnieLamp > Are computers a part of your daytime job? Please tell us a """"""""" little about what you do between 9 and 5. Gary Utter > I dispatch police cars for the Office of Emergency """""""""" Communications in beautiful downtown Rochester, New York. We use computers all over the place, but we don't really get to WORK with them, all the software is "canned", and runs off mainframes. They are just tools. Our center presents probably THE most intense dispatching environment in the US, but explaining what that means is, I suspect, well beyond the scope of this profile . (It would take a LOT of background. :) Let's just say that it is intense, and stressful, and a whole lot of fun if you have the right attitude, and SERIOUS work. (If I screw up, people can DIE.) GEnieLamp > How long have you been a member of GEnie? What new services do """"""""" you think GEnie should provide its subscribers? Gary Utter > Jeez, memory does not serve in this case. It seems to me """""""""" that it was July of '87 when I got my first modem, and August when I discovered GEnie and CIS. As for new services, I would like to see widespread availability of 9600 baud nodes, along with v.32 capability. I would also like to see Prime Time eliminated, but I don't know that I would say that is something GEnie SHOULD provide. I think it would be a Good Thing, but I am not at all sure that it would be practical. :) GEnieLamp > What one piece of advice would you pass along to a new Apple """"""""" II telecommunications enthusiast? Gary Utter > """""""""" 1. Get the fastest modem you can possibly afford, and make sure that it has MNP 1-5 and V.32 and v.42bis. (Of course, to be reading this, they will already HAVE a modem....) 2. Get a GOOD communications program. I personally would recommend either TIC or ProTerm v3.0. I understand there are some new things coming down the pike, so I don't want to limit myself too much here, but I don't know anything specific that I can talk about. 3. Get a good front end program. I am not going to make any recommendation at all on that. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a heavy CoPilot user, but basically, all the front end programs currently available are good choices, so I think which one you get is up to personal preference. Gee, that is THREE pieces of advice, isn't it? (And I didn't even mention the dedicated phone line. :) GEnieLamp > You've worked as chief assistant in the Jerry Pournelle """"""""" Roundtable for a while. How did you come into getting this job? What aspects of the work do you find most interesting? Well, originally I was a heavy poster in the Pournelle RT, and I was almost always on at 3, 4, 5 in the morning. This is a REAL good time to do maintenance tasks in a RoundTable, and Howard Rosenman, who was then the Assistant, needed someone to do maintenance, so he asked me. As the situation wound up, Howard got a new job shortly after that (with GEnie) and I moved up into his slot. What I find most interesting about it is the ability to increase usage by making the RT more interesting to the USERS. Just how that is done is something really hard to explain, but I seem to have a knack for it. Fascinating work, overall, but it cuts into my sleep severely. :) ////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "Hmmmm.......... Curiouser and Curiouser........ / / SOMEONE around here must have slipped the Topic / / Cops a fiver to look the other way." / //////////////////////////////////// SAM-RAPP //// [EOA] [FOC]////////////////////////////// FOCUS ON... / ///////////////////////////////// Computers As Therapy """""""""""""""""""" By Phil Shapiro [P.SHAPIRO1] >>> HOW APPLE II COMPUTERS ARE BEING USED FOR COGNITIVE THERAPY <<< """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" From the time when computers were introduced into schools about a dozen years ago, teachers have had an opportunity to watch closely how students interact with these wondrous machines. It's no great surprise that computers have been seen to assist intellectual growth. But what is surprising is how computers can help boost student self-esteem and self-confidence. As students interact with computers, they are given constant feedback as to their current progress. With well-designed educational software they can almost feel their minds growing. As students develop a mastery of several educational computer programs, their sense of self-esteem and self-confidence naturally rises. Thus, the very act of interacting with computers may change the students' sense of self. If, then, computers can help strengthen the self-image of schoolchildren, shouldn't they also be able to strengthen the self-image of other people, as well? This very question was asked and answered by occupational therapists at St. Elizabeth's Hospital, a publicly-funded psychiatric hospital in Washington, D.C. About eight years ago the hospital bought two Apple IIc computer systems for use by staff and residents. Along with the computers they also purchased a wide selection of educational computer software. The aim of the computer project was to bring residents to the computer lab in small groups, giving them the opportunity to interact with both the computers and with one another. Suzanne Pickering, the occupational therapist supervising the computer project, explains that the residents take a strong interest in working with the computers. The software engages their minds, providing a welcome intellectual stimulus within their daily routine. Pickering further explains that the nature of the software program being used seems less important to the residents than the fact that they're just using the computer itself. Residents of the hospital take pride in simply sitting at the computer and using whatever software is available. Yet choosing which software to use with the residents is no easy decision. The two categories of software most often used are drill-and-practice software and creative expression software. In the drill-and-practice category are the math, spelling, geography and problem-solving games most frequently used with elementary and middle level students. In the creative expression category are programs such as Print Shop and AppleWorks. Pickering explains that her objective is to get the residents quickly involved in a computer activity that's not overly complicated. While the residents have great enthusiasm for using computers, their attention spans are not always long. For the maximum beneficial result, residents need to be given software that allows them to achieve actual, demonstrable success within the first few minutes after booting the program. The programs need to coax them along to greater and greater challenges, all the while giving them positive and encouraging feedback. The goal is to produce small intellectual fireworks in their brains as they develop greater and greater skill at a given cognitive activity. The object is to facilitate and encourage the growth of new neural links in their minds. An interesting analogy is offered by Pickering. Just as doing sit-ups can help strengthen lower back muscles, so too can doing cognitive drills help strengthen a person's sense of self. And once a person's sense of self is strengthened, once they have a stronger and renewed sense of their own being, a positive spillover effect results. By strengthening one group of mental muscles, the spillover effect strengthens them all. In terms of the creative expression software, the goal of the project is to reinforce their self-concept as artistic creators. A simple Print Shop sign serves as visible proof of their creative powers. To help celebrate the residents' creativity, the walls of the computer lab are adorned with their handiwork. What started as a small computer lab has grown to become a small art museum as well. Extra printed copies of their creative work are given the residents to show others. Sadly, the popular Print Shop software has been missing for over two years. (The residents were using the original Print Shop software, with its easy menus and interface.) Keeping software secure in an institutional setting is always a serious challenge. The hospital staff has been talking about new software they'd like to add to their collection. High on their wish list is the Children's Writing and Publishing Center. With limited funding for the project, software purchases are made very carefully. When asked how other Apple II users might be able to support this interesting computer project, Pickering commented that the hospital could really use another copy of the original Print Shop disk. (The New Print Shop might present too many confusing options, and disk swapping, for the residents.) Other items on her wish list include standard computer supplies: floppy disks, ImageWriter ribbons, and disk storage cases. Donations to the hospital are all tax deductible, Pickering hastened to add. In discussing the great potential for success in this project, Pickering mentioned that she's interested in hearing from occupational therapists in other cities who might be doing similar work. It makes sense to share ideas and experiences in this fledgling new field of mental therapy. The operations of the human mind remain one of the great mysteries of all time. Yet you need not be a neuroscientist to realize that computer-assisted cognitive therapy may have long-lasting positive effects for those suffering from mental illness. If the sole result of these computer interactions is to bring an interesting new focus of interest into these people's lives, that alone can make this project worthwhile. Somehow, I suspect, this project will accomplish much more. Contact """"""" Suzanne Pickering, Occupational Therapy St.Elizabeth's Hospital, 2700 Martin Luther King Ave., SE, Washington, D.C. 20032 Phone: (202) 373-6901 and (202) 373-6909. Recommended Reading """"""""""""""""""" Turkle, Sherry. The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984. [*][*][*] Phil Shapiro Shapiro is the founder of Balloons Software, a """""""""""" new Apple II educational software company. He can be reached He can be reached via electronic mail on GEnie at: P.Shapiro1; on America Online at: pshapiro ///////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "I drink to that, one narrow minded person to another." / /////////////////////////////////////////// T.MCCOMB //// [EOA] [GAM]////////////////////////////// GAMES PEOPLE PLAY / ///////////////////////////////// Bouncin' Ferno """""""""""""" By Darrel Raines [D.Raines] GOOD NEWS / BAD NEWS This month's topic is the final (sigh) program to be """""""""""""""""""" released by that amazing and sometimes frustrating French organization: Free Tools Association (FTA). FTA has produced some of the most beautiful graphics and sound demonstration programs that have been seen on the Apple IIgs. They have produced a number of exciting game programs. Perhaps best of all, they have released most of their software in the public domain as freeware. However, FTA has developed all of their software "free from the restrictions of Apple's toolset". This has meant that you usually have to load the software from floppy disk and that the software did not always work after updates to the system software. The claim, I believe, was that use of the toolset slowed programs down to the point that they were not useful. For better or worse this seems to be the last of the FTA programs that we will be seeing. If a person wants to be known by their best efforts, then this game may be the lasting image people have of FTA. This game is, just like its creators, both amazing and frustrating. Perhaps I have gotten ahead of myself. First I should describe the game and then I will tell you my impressions of the software. The Introduction Yes, the introduction of this game deserves a separate """""""""""""""" section. Like all of the previous FTA offerings, this one has great sound and graphics. All of the music is on the first screen. The main title is displayed with an impressive graphics-as-letters image of a roaring fire. A scroll line appears in the middle of the screen with a long line of credits and other semi-useful information. A ball (or marble) appears at the top of the screen and then things really start to happen. [*][*][*] As the stereo music starts to play the ball drops from the top of the screen. It hits the scroll line and BOTH the ball and the scroll line bounce to reflect the collision. While reacting to the collision, the information line continues to scroll as if nothing had happened. This is some of the smoothest graphics that I have seen in quite some time. When you finally get tired of watching the pretty pictures, you can hit the mouse button to move on to the game. [*][*][*] The Game The first thing to greet your eyes after the introduction """""""" screens is the main control panel for Bouncin' Ferno. You can choose all of the game options from here. A joystick can be selected and calibrated from this screen. You can also choose to use the mouse (default) as an input device. You may choose to play a new game, select the maze (labeled Level) to be played, or start the editor. The editor is discussed below. FTA has provided you with three demonstration mazes. The first maze is a good introduction to the game. The other two are monsters that are probably well beyond your skills for quite a while. You will want to stay with maze (Level) 0 until you are much more familiar with the game. Bouncin' Ferno has been likened by many to the old Electronic Arts program Marble Madness. I cannot compare the two since I never owned a copy of MM. The object of the game is to move a small ball (or marble) around a three dimensional maze and collect the small containers of fluid that keep you alive. You must continue to collect fluid since you are continually draining your current supply. This fill and drain activity is monitored by a crystal ball on the right/lower portion of the screen. As you collect containers, the fluid level rises in the crystal ball. As you progress in time, the fluid is slowly drained until the crystal ball will eventually crack if it ever becomes dry. When this happens, the game is over. [*][*][*] The maze itself is a very large chamber that is broken up into individual rooms. The rooms are arranged in a five by five matrix. Your position in the matrix and how many containers are left will be shown at the top of the screen in the upper/left area. You begin in the upper-most (on the map), left-most room in the matrix. You can only go into other rooms via a transporter. Transporters are marked as small triangles on the floor. If you start in the first room and land on a triangle on the right side wall, you end up in the upper-most room second from the left. The ball will only travel one room in the direction of the transport. [*][*][*] Once you are in a room you may move freely about the room and try to pick up any of the fluid containers that you can reach. A mouse or joystick may be used to accelerate your ball on the playing field. The ball will accelerate in the direction that you move the mouse/joystick and will continue to accelerate until you stop moving. I have practiced with both input devices and find the mouse offers better response. The faster you move the mouse, the more acceleration you will get. A nice, slow movement is wanted for most of the obstacles. I believe that you can progress to the next maze if you manage to get every container on the current maze. I cannot check this guess since I have never quite finished a level. I will have more to say on this subject later. You need the containers anyway since you must replenish your fluid level in the course of play. Therefore, it is a good idea to get every container, if you can. The floor of each room is a purple slab that is marked with a grid to help the player see proper angles. On top of the purple slab can be a number of different surfaces which have varying characteristics. A red square indicates fire and will drain your fluid very rapidly. Stay away from these at all costs. A green, orange, or brown square is part of a ramp or higher surface. These are not bad for you except that any incline will be more difficult to go up than flat ground and will accelerate you on the downhill slopes. Some squares (of any color) will contain a centered straight line which represents a spring mechanism. Landing on this square will send you sky-rocketing into the air. This may be useful for reaching upper levels of the current room. A blue colored square indicates a glide region. Once you enter a glide region, you cannot control the movement of the ball until you touch another type of square. Therefore, a combination of blue and red squares can be deadly since you cannot change direction on the blue once you have started toward a red square. There are also invisible squares which act just like one of the other purple, green, orange or brown squares. I understand that there exists (but have not encountered) an invisible square that acts just like a blue surface. These could be even more dangerous. The one maneuver that I have not mentioned so far is what I call the "marble hop". The ball that you control is capable of a very short hop whenever you press the mouse button. I have not found this to be all that useful. There are certainly a couple of rooms that require this feature. However, the marble hop is so low that I have found the major usefulness of this feature to be during a jump from a high level. Pressing the mouse button will help break your fall and keep you from bouncing so high. Each room can play like an individual puzzle. Think of it as a real-time test of your ability to solve mazes, but with a twist. The puzzle can involve figuring out how to get to the can of fluid. It can involve determining how to get to the next room. One devious little quirk that I have failed to mention until now is that a time limit exists for each room. No timer is visible. However, if you stay in a room long enough, it begins to fill with water. This is not immediately detrimental to your ball. The effects are that the ball does not have the friction it used to have with the various surfaces. Your crystal ball will drain about twice as fast while you are in a room filling with water. I am not sure how much the room will fill. One of the interesting things that I have discovered is that the water will sometimes stop filling the room and the room will retain the water that it had received until that point. I cannot decide why the water stops flowing into the room. I also fail to understand why it stops at different levels during different games. When you put all of this together, you get a good picture of what goes on during a game of Bouncin' Ferno. You roll, hop and slide your way through a series of traps, ramps, hidden surfaces and other obstacles trying to reach the next can of fluid or the next room. Multiple room puzzles are possible and even exist on some of the more difficult rooms in the demonstration mazes. If you get tired of trying to complete the room you are in you can always go to the next room. There is nothing to prevent you from passing through all of the rooms and not getting any of the fluid containers (although that would not do you any good). The best reason for using this capability is to skip difficult rooms until after you have captured easy containers in later rooms. There is of course the mandatory high score name board. These exist for each maze, so you should get to type your name in quite often. There does not seem to be a way to save a game in progress. There is supposed to be a way to quit play during a game, but it does not always work for me. The Editor I don't plan on going into much detail here on the editor. I """""""""" simply wanted to say that it exists and can create any maze that you are able to conceive. The instructions are written in French so you will need to download another file that has a translated version of the instructions. The interface is mostly via the keyboard. You will see the rooms as you build them, but the construction is done from keyboard commands. You can test any level as you build it. The editor looks to be very complete. A Review Bouncin' Ferno is one of the best Freeware games that I have """""""" seen anywhere. It is also one of the best games that I have experienced for the Apple IIgs, period. It does have its faults, however. The game can run a bit on the long side for one sitting. I have played one maze for almost an hour. Therefore, a save game feature would be very useful. Along those lines the quit command should work at all times during the game. I would also like to see a pause feature added so that the kids can get my attention without my fluid draining slowly away. ("Not now honey, daddy's in the middle of something important.") Other minor faults include the lack of music other than the main title screen. FTA is known for its music demonstration programs, right. It would also be nice to know how much time is left for you to finish a room. Perhaps a clock could show up in the upper/right corner to count off you last minute before the water starts filling a room. The game play is smooth and realistic. The ball acts just like I would expect a marble to act on the surfaces and inclines that you go over. I have no complaints in this area other than to say that the marble hop seems to be of limited use. I think that a cumulative effect would be appropriate for the hop feature. What I have in mind is a second button press bounces you higher than the first. The third press would send you higher and so on. However, this is a minor gripe and merely a suggestion for improvement. Now we come to the area where I have the biggest complaint. The game can be VERY difficult when the mazes are constructed without proper care concerning how they can be traversed. I suppose that this may have been the area that FTA was still working on when they disbanded. For whatever reason, the level 0 maze is barely playable (toward the end) and the other two mazes are ridiculously hard. I am a fairly good arcade game player. I have been unable to finish the level 0 maze in over a dozen attempts. My wife cannot even complete half of the maze. I have "solved" every one of the rooms in the maze at least once, but never within the same game. Four of the rooms are very difficult and I run out of time on at least one of them every time I play. This concern is the source of the statement I made at the beginning of this review. Bouncin' Ferno is both amazing and frustrating. The graphics and playability are fantastic. The frustration at being unable to win even the simplest maze is enough to drive you crazy. There is hope on the horizon, however. Both A+/Incider and GEnie are conducting contests for the creators of the best mazes for this nifty game. All a person has to do is use the built-in editor to create a maze for the game and that creation can be entered in both contests. If enough people put their talents to this task, we should see enough good levels to make this game one of the all-time classics for the Apple IIgs. Until more mazes exist, I can only say that the game has the potential to be a classic. The exciting thing about all of this is that the reader of this column can directly take part in the action. All he/she has to do is download the files listed at the end of this article. After playing a few rounds of the introduction maze, select the editor from the main menu and let your creative juices flow. There are many prizes to be won and recognition awaits the creators of any worthy mazes. There is nothing to lose and a good time to be had by any participant. Until next month: Roll carefully. Bouncin' Ferno: Review Rating: 8 out of a possible 10. Entertainment Factors: (See August article/ALMP0892.ASC GEnieLamp RT) Skill Development: Minor mouse abilities are developed. Playability: This game is very playable and somewhat addictive. Stimulation: The maze editor is the only creative outlet in this game. Random Events: None supported in this game. Computer Player Modes: N/A. Fun Factor: This game is a blast (and could be even better). Files: (GEnie A2 file numbers, of course) 18711 BF.DOCS.BXY by J.WILLETT size is 5888 Desc: ENGLISH DOCS FOR BOUNCIN' FERNO 18948 BOUNCNFERNO.BXY by LUNATIC size is 458496 Desc: Bouncin' Ferno game from the FTA! [*][*][*] Author: Darrel Raines [D.RAINES] welcomes any feedback or comments via electronic mail to the listed user name. //////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "Hey, you're WAY off topic here, fella!! Jeff W. (SYsop), / / here's your chance to nail the 'sucker'... <Grin>.." / ///////////////////////////////////////////// T.EVANS21 //// [EOA] [COW]////////////////////////////// COWTOONS! / ///////////////////////////////// Moooooo Fun! """""""""""" By Mike White [M.WHITE] HINT: Clip and Load King Kowngs into the DOS 5.0 editor (or any editor) and quickly press page-down & page-up to see King Cowng change dispositions. (An animated CowTOON!) [*][*][*] /\ (__) ___ <> (oo) ____ / | /---<>----\/ |,=-~| l--==---/ | / | <> || |'===| l--==------V * ||/~~\--|| ---- /~~~~~~\ _/~~~~~~~~\_ | == == == | | === === | | ======== | " King Cowng " | === === | ~~~~~~~~~~ | ======== | / ==== ==== \ On the empire state building. | == ==== == | | ==== ==== | [M.WHITE25] | == ==== == | | ==== ==== | | ========== | | == ____ == | |____| |____| /\ ___ <>(|__|) ____ / | <> (oo) |,=-~| l--==---/ | <>_(/\)__ |'===| l--==------V /~~\ .. _ | ---- /~~~~~~\ | | _/~~~~~~~~\_| | | == == == |[m] | === === | | ======== | " King Cowng " | === === | ~~~~~~~~~~ | ======== | / ==== ==== \ On the empire state building. | == ==== == | | ==== ==== | [M.WHITE25] | == ==== == | | ==== ==== | | ========== | | == ____ == | |____| |____| [*][*][*] (__) CowTOONS? Mike took us up on our offer (oo) and sent us this month's CowTOONS /-------\/ ________ selection. Thanks, Mike! / | ||_|/ O _______ ||----| -- If you have an idea for a CowTOON!, we ^^ ^ would like to see it. If we use it here Cow Catcher in GEnieLamp, we will credit your account with 2 hours of GEnie non-prime time! //////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "Haven't you heard "patience is a virtue" and "all good things / / to those who wait"? :^)" / / / / "Sure I have... But where's the update?? <Grin>..." / ////////////////////////////////////// D.SEBERG / T.EVANS21 //// [EOA] [SHA]////////////////////////////// SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS / ///////////////////////////////// It's Only Money """"""""""""""" By Kirk Hollingsworth [HOLLINGSWRTH] >>> YOUR MONEY MATTERS <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""" ~ Programmer: Steve Peterson o Software Solutions ~ YOUR MONEY MATTERS This is a home/small business accounting program for """""""""""""""""" the IIGS. It is extremely flexible and fast in its operation, and, for the most part, follows the normal Apple Interface guidelines so that its operation is relatively intuitive for IIGS users. (There also are enough keyboard equivalents to make operation that way pretty simple.) It not only provides quite flexible handling and reporting of the data, but permits exporting it to Appleworks or AWGS so that it can be massaged further via spreadsheets or an additional database. First The Bad News it does not have many of the additional modules """""""""""""""""" which, for example, Managing Your Money does. It has no modules for calculating loans, for example, and thus no way of automatically separating out equity from interest payments for mortgages: the user has to secure this data and input it himself. There is a capability included for investment management, but it is seriously compromised by the lack of any method to input new asset values/share prices to change the value of the investment. The module is therefore of little value to anyone who has securities or mutual fund investments: it will mainly be useful to keep track of savings accounts, money market funds, and the like. Additionally, YMM has no equivalents of the MYM Insurance or for the Calendar modules. The Good News however, is that what YMM does do it does very well indeed. """"""""""""" Perhaps its most salient feature is its flexibility: all transactions go into a single transaction file, and this file can be very simply sorted and/or selected from in virtually any way a user could ask. The main transaction file has the following fields: o Base account (e.g. Chase Bank, cash, Savings) * o Transaction Type (e.g. Check, Refund, Cash exp etc.) * o Reference number (e.g. check number) o Date o Paid to o Distribution Account (e.g. Household, Medical, Groceries)* o Tax ID (e.g. medical expenses, interest) * o Cleared o Amount o Memo * User constructed ahead of time One can sort and/or select based on any combination of these fields: all Savings, or all Savings after August 1, or all Grocery expenditures of more than $25, or all checks to Joe Smith. The dialogue box involved in setting up multiple selects is ingenious and works well. There are a few additional "files" within the database (there's actually only a single datafile, though - no directories full of different files): o Accounts (base and distribution) o Account addresses o Recurring transactions, and o Payee addresses. New accounts can be easily added at any time during the span of the year (unless cramped storage facilities require "extending" the data base [probably similar to the dreaded MYM scrunch?]: once the database is extended no new accounts can be added). There are separate windows available for viewing transactions, all of the above subsidiary "files", plus other transaction fields, including o Account budget (for setting up new budgets) o Account monthly (shows actual vs budget [ but not the net of the two ] vs. history [generally last year] month by month for any account). The windows are shown, normally, in list form. Fields are, in the case of text fields, truncated so that all the fields will always fit on the screen at one time: the user has no flexibility about changing field size or hiding fields. There is, for most of the windows, a single-record "Form" display easily available: it's nicely made, but there seems little use for it since in list mode you can, as in AWGS, read the entire contents of a truncated text field by putting the cursor on it. Adding new transactions is very simple. One opens the transaction window, and puts the cursor on the last record of a particular transaction type (the last check, for example) and hits Apple-I, and gets a blank next line. Hitting Return for the base account, transaction type and/or date fields (instead of entering new data) dittos the previous record's entry for that field; hitting Return on the Ref Number field increments the previous check number (if any) by one. (It is not absolutely necessary to find the last record of a particular type: one can put the new record anywhere and it will be automatically sorted at the next access. However, choosing the logical place for it does give useful automatic dittos from the prior record. ) The Payee entry always checks the Recurring Payments file, so that there's no need to enter more than two or three letters of a frequently used payee: if you pay the Chintzy Mortgage Company $745.86 per month, writing "Chi" (or however many characters you need to make it unique) will fill in the name, the amount, allocate the amount to Mortgage (with some to Insurance and Taxes if you account it that way), and add your account number to the Memo field, all instantaneously. It is also possible to copy several frequently made transactions at once from the Recurring window to the Transaction window. I keep my regular monthly transactions with a dash before each payee's name, so they're sorted together: then I just select them all with the cursor, and copy them into the Transaction window. Note that both windows must be open for this, however: despite the existence of Apple-like menus, there is no clipboard. Split transactions are easily handled, and the splits can be routinely shown or not shown in the Transaction file as desired. (One oddity in this, though. When marking transactions as "cleared" the marking takes effect only for the Total part of the record. If you select, as I do to minimize the "current" transaction file, only uncleared transactions to be shown in the window, cleared split transactions will also continue to show unless you list the splits and clear each split individually). As noted above, there's also a Payee address file. If you're going to use checks with window envelopes, the address will be searched for the payee and printed. There is a relatively limited number of reporting possibilities at this point, and report formats cannot be modified by the user. However, reports can be written easily to disk, and are written with Returns between records and Tabs between fields - so importing them to AWGS is a breeze. (With one caveat, however: the reports are written to disk as formal reports, so that one must first use a text editor to delete the column headers and subtotal lines for the import to go through properly.) I use this feature a lot: for reasons noted later, I'm currently using AWGS to print my checks, and I also keep a hard copy of my checkbook register done that way. It is really very simple to use (even with the necessary editing). The current checkwriting format (listed under Reports) is very limited, but undergoing revision at the moment. Currently one can print (1) a personal check, with no address and no voucher, but with the ability to move the fields around, or (2) a continuous commercial check in a fixed format(the same NEBS check format used for MYM) with address and voucher. The checks are printed (at least, on my DJ 500) with uncondensed Shaston - hardly elegant, and of limited value because of the difficulty of fitting the result into an envelope window. However, all of this will change within the next month or two: the author, Steve Peterson, is currently working on a new checkwriting module which will allow a great deal more flexibility. (I hope to be able to use, for example, 3-on-a-page Quicken-type checks with no vouchers and with choice of fonts.) In the meantime the exporting to AWGS is so simple and trouble-free that (assuming you pay virtually all your checks at one time in the month, as I do) it works very efficiently as a part of the package to print the checks with AWGS. Other improvements in the works include """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" o allowing the user to specify fonts used in a window, o permitting sending of control codes to the printer for printing in text mode, o permitting the Match Record dialogue to be shown automatically before accessing Transactions, and o some improvements in the monthly account report. There are also graphs (in color) available showing account amounts (e.g., assets vs. liabilities, expenses vs. income - user's choice), cash flow, and net worth. These can only be printed via a "hard-copy-of-screen" facility, and they cannot be printed to disk. The program seems to be very efficiently written: it's quite fast, particularly considering that it's always drawing and re-drawing graphic text screens. I have a RAMFast and a 8 mhz Zip: it took 8 seconds to load the program, and only another 11 to load a complete transaction window (with graphic lettering) with 500-plus transactions (cutting it to current transactions brought it down to 9 seconds) . Comparable figures with the Zip off were 11 and 21 seconds respectively. Quitting the program (unlike MYM) is virtually instantaneous. The only slowness is in the saving of the datafile when backing up: it's a very sparse file (users of the Prosel 16 appointment calendar will know what I mean) which (for me) runs currently over 4 megabytes (but only 214 on disk). When backing up a hard disk with Prosel it takes several seconds of apparently no action to get past the datafile. Despite its relative newness, I have found no bugs in the current version after virtually daily use for several months. Perhaps every few dozen accesses I may get a crash to monitor when leaving the program, and I have two records which mysteriously are accounted a month earlier than the month entered (and deleting and reentering doesn't solve the problem): other than that, no problems. The manual is superb: orderly, readable, and very complete - with page by page illustrations of windows. The Bottom Line is that this is a program which any IIGS user looking for """"""""""""""" a small accounting/checkbook management program should seriously consider. It is, as indicated, very flexible, and once you get used to the data structure it is also fast and simple to use (a lot simpler to use than Managing Your Money) - and very intuitive. There are a few things I'd like it to have that are not currently planned: I'd like to be able to enter my data into a single record form without accessing the Transaction window, (preferably with the form knowing what day it is), I'd like a bit more flexibility in report formats, and I'd like some more graphs (being able to see Actual vs. Budget for total Expenses or total Income would be nice, for example). But but these are relatively trivial needs: the program is a wonderful addition to the IIGS arsenal, and I expect to use it, happily, for a long time to come. [*][*][*] Note It should be recognized that the author of this review is not """" totally objective. Although he did not participate in the formal beta testing of YMM, he was (by his own request) an early user of the first post-beta version, and has corresponded fairly energetically about the program with the author, Steve Peterson, over the past several months. He also saw the manual in draft and provided input on that. //////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "Anyway, I'm dead tired. Gotta go. Too bad, I'm in / / rare form tonight." / ///////////////////////////////////// R.MARTIN22 //// [EOA] -- Jerry Penner jpenne@ee.ualberta.ca Try a 1-line .sig today.