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1995-03-18
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AMY REPORT WEEKLY ONLINE MAGAZINE
Monday, JUNE 13, 1988
Vol I No. 1
===========
PUBLISHER MANAGING EDITOR
Ron Kovacs R.F.Mariano
=======================================================
AMY REPORT EDITOR: Henry T. Colonna
Headquarters Bulletin Board
Syndicate
201-968-8148
------------------------------------
CONTENTS
========
* Editor's Column....................* Amiga Flight Simulators.........
* Phasar Review......................* WordPerfect Library Previw......
* Word Perfect Conference-DELPHI.....* Other WordPerfect News..........
* CIS a Total Facelift...............* Microsoft Upgrades MAC Wares....
=========================================================================
Editor officially available on CompuServe and GEnie, others coming soon
=========================================================================
Editor's Column
Hello out there!
This is issue one, number one of Amy Report, which I hope will grow into a
very popular on-line magazine. An on-line magazine that appears regularly
will provide, by the nature of the medium in which it resides, much more
timely information than a paper-based magazine could. Especially for those
who don't have the time or money to stay in touch with the message bases
constantly.
I hope to report on products and provide information on rumors within
Commodore, starting with the next issue, if anything new happens. I chose
not to include information on that level in this issue, because we've all
seen alot of information on what's happening currently. Anyone want to see
ANOTHER article on OS 1.3? (grin)
I hope you get to know me as an editor and a person, instead of as some
person somewhere whom don't know. I'll print letters, disagreements, and
columns. Please submit articles to me. The reviews in this entire issue
were penned by me, Henry Colonna, and I hope I can get some public
submissions soon.
I have included some news on Microsoft's software upgrades for the Mac, and
some information on the new CompuServe software, thanks to Ron Kovacs of ST
Report and Mike Schoenbach. On GEnie I'm HTCOLONNA and on CIS I'm
74726,3216. Remember, anything goes having to do with the Amiga or
computers in general, but not everything submitted will be printed of
course.
Please upload and distribute this to all bulletin boards. But do not
modify the content. Of course, for your own use you can cut out sections
(like the CIS table) but as an entity please respect AMY REPORT for an
entire unit when uploaded and sent around. Reprints anywhere are fine as
long as reprint credits are given, and a copy of the magazine/newsletter is
mailed to me. Contact me on CIS or GEnie for my address.
Until next time!
Henry Colonna
=====================================================================
Flight Simulators for the Amiga
--Henry Colonna
I. Flight Simulator II
Flight Simulator II is the old classic from Sublogic. This program has
been around in various states for many years, and still remains an
important standard by which all other simulators are judged. With great
detail SubLogic simulates a Cessna 182 propeller-driven aircraft and adds a
Gates Learjet in the ST and Amiga versions only. When Flight Simulator II
was released for the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga over a year ago, Flight
Simulator technology on home computers was taken to new levels.
Sublogic added multiple views of the airplane from the positions of a
camera outside to the Cessna (called "spot" view), from a car (or boat if
you're over water) the control tower, or of course from the cockpit.
A user can view the plane he is flying from beside, on top, underneath, or
behind the plane, and watch scenery and aerobatic maneuvers from these
views. For purposes of this review, let's call this "positioning." The
positioning features are as flexible as one could imagine, as there are
controls to tweak the distance and the exact angle that one is viewing the
airplane from, to achieve the exact position desirable. The actual
controls of the airplane still function as always, so it's possible to
watch the plane from outside do rolls and loops, or pass between the World
Trade Center buildings. To make this clearer, let's imagine that the
Cessna is being flown under the Golden Gate bridge in San Fransisco. The
pilot could view this flight from above the airplane and watch it disappear
momentarily beneath the bridge, and zoom in close or further away to see
more of the total bridge or a smaller, but close-up view of the airplane
flying under the bridge. It's possible to tweak the controls to view the
plane from the side, the very back, or from any position within a large
imaginary sphere around the airplane. If a particularly interesting
vantage point is achieved, for instance between two buildings or under a
bridge, the position can be saved to a disk and named, to be recalled at a
later date. This positioning is extremely flexible and very characteristic
of Sublogic products.
This small example is inadquate to show the full power of the flight
simulator experience. Remember it's possible to position the viewpoint
inside the control tower, or from a car looking up at the plane. There's
nothing more exciting than landing on a runway and watching the plane land
from the control tower of that airport.
The user can size the windows to any position he should so desire, just
like an Amiga window, and add multiple windows. For instance, it is
entirely possible to slide the instrument panel out of view and expand the
"from the seat of the plane" view to full screen. Or, slide the instrument
panel out of the way, and pull up the "spot" view and watch both at the
same time. In fact, it's possible to mix and match any 2 views from any 2
positions and from any range (called zoom).
To further enhance these very flexible capabilities, the last minute or so
of flight is stored in memory, and can be replayed. During the reply, the
user does not have to limit himself to the views used during the flight.
For instance, it's very hard to land from any other view other than inside
the airplane. However, just as the plane stops, it's fun to click on
replay and switch to the control tower view and watch the airplane land.
Then it's possible to switch to the spot view and replay the sequence yet a
third time.
These positioning features, combined with zoom, replay, and window sizing,
make Flight Simulator the excellent product that it is. No other flight
simulator currently available offers this flexibility (even Sublogic's own
Jet).
Flight Simulator II provides full radio navigation with very good
documentation for the beginner. There are several different options, but
most often the technique used is to local two airports on the reference
charts and tune into two frequencies, from which it's possible to locate
the plane, where it's going, and make adjustments as necessary. One does
have to access the flight reference charts frequently with this product,
unlike the others mentioned in this article. The charts provided with
Flight Simulator II are replicas of real-world charts, and significantly
enhance the simulation experience. Additional appropriate charts are
packaged with each additional (extra cost) scenery disk.
Flight Simulator supports environmental conditions like wind, fog and
clouds, that are user-definable. It's possible to set the location and
speed of the wind, and wind has realistic effects on the aircraft. It's
also possible to enter the altitude and depth of clouds and fog, which
effect visibility. Landing with deep ground fog is lots of fun!
There's also an autopilot to fly from airport to airport, which is useful
for very long distances and will even keep the plane level and at a
selected altitude. There's a "reliability" option that will make certain
parts of the airplane have a chance to fail during a flight, requiring
emergency action.
Another very enjoyable feature is the ability to fly with another Flight
Simulator II owner over the modem or with a null modem cable. It's fun to
do aerobatics together and fly towards and away from each other. It works
quite well, although 2400 baud is recommended for the fastest update of the
other person's plane.
There's an option on the menu that says "Jet". Clicking on the Jet will
instantly transform the Cessna into a Lear business Jet, which is much
faster and more sensitive (but more responsive) to controls.
Finally, Sublogic provides a World War I game that consists of flying over
a river and dropping bombs on enemy airports and other enemy locations, and
fighting planes that swarm up in the sky toward you. Sublogic cheats a bit
and gives you a small radar to help locate the other planes. It's also
possible to use the modem option and join up with another player to fight
the enemy. One can still switch to the lear jet in this mode, but it
doesn't give the jet guns or bombs.
Criticisms - Flight Simulator will occasionally (tho not often) do
something a little bit bizarre like throw a triangle of water into the air,
or have a patch of ground that disappears when one gets closer. There seem
to be some subtle bugs in the scenery routines that show up occasionally.
Also there's a bug in the sound routine - when flying upside down the sound
stops completely. Both of these are relatively minor. The World War I
mode, when connected over the modem, should pass data for the other
player's bullets. That way, two players could compete with each other.
Currently, a player can shoot but the other player doesn't see the bullets
and no damage is registered.
Overall, Flight Simulator is regarded as being highly realistic by most of
airplane pilots, though not perfect. The Cessna is more realistic than the
Lear Jet from what I understand, but I'm not a real-world pilot. It is an
excellent program that I feel anyone can enjoy tremendously, even if the
sound of a "flight simulator" does not appeal immediately. The
documentation is excellent and can get a non-pilot up in the air. The
sensation of Flight Simulator is hard to describe, it's a relaxing, calming
product that seems to be like a kind of therapy. It's excellent, state of
the art product that has provided me with many hours of enjoyment.
II. Jet
Not to be confused with the Lear Jet in Flight Simulator, Sublogic several
months ago released Jet, a combat simulator with both a carrier-based F-18
and a land-based F-16. Jet has been a long time coming, and for those
reasons caused high anticipation and expectations. Most have been
disappointed with it, though it's still a very good and desirable product.
Jet allows the user to pilot either fighter and load it with various
combinations of bombs, air-to-air missiles and of course a machine gun.
There are several different scenarios through which points are earned. The
pilot has 3 jets to get as many points as possible, and can select a skill
level from one to nine.
I have to begin criticizing Jet with its difficulty settings. There's very
little "feel" given to what each difficulty level will bring, except for a
crude chart given in the manual.
Jet also seems a bit disjointed when it's first loaded. There's a menu
that has 10 options to select from, 7 combat possibilities, a demo, an
option to load and look at scenery disks, and a multi-player dogfight. I
smelled trouble the second I looked at this menu.
Herein lies one of the big faults of Jet, and why it's inferior to
Interceptor (more on Interceptor in a moment). There are severe
limitations and restrictions on what happens in Jet and what Jet allows the
user to do. Jet allows the user to select between ground combat only or
air combat only, or "mixed" attack. Each mode provides different scenery,
with no or very little scenery available in the air combat modes. The
ground is flat with little dots, no terrain except some features at the
airport. There is some nice scenery available in the ground combat and
"combined" attack modes, but it's disappointing because of the promise in
advertisements and on the package that Jet is "scenery disk compatible."
Only by loading the game does one realize that Jet _is_ partially scenery
disk compatible. It's not possible to bomb the ground targets (like the
white house) and it's not possible to have combat within a certain area.
Before Jet arrived I envisioned fighting over the modem right in the center
of Washington DC. I would swoop down to the whitehouse attacking an evil
Russian in the air with a Sidewinder, and imagine tourists holding hot dogs
running in the streets for cover, dripping mustard all over their shirts
and clothes. Unfortunately when I got the program, I was confronted with
the harsh reality that Jet would only let me fly among the scenery like
Flight Simulator, but faster, and with the sounds of the fighter as opposed
to the Cessna or the Lear jet. I could not dogfight an opponent above the
white house, nor could I turn evil myself and bomb the Pentagon. I was
sorely disappointed. The combat modes in Jet are limited to the scenery
set on the disk itself, and there isn't any scenery at all in the air
combat scenarios. Sigh.
The combat is also very unrealistic in several areas. Your Jet has no
countermeasures at all, and the enemy doesn't seem real. Countermeasures
are used to jam enemy missiles in most other games of this nature - there's
chaff and flares usually. When an enemy missile is fired, Jet relies on
the pilots aerobatic skills to outfly and confuse the missile. The manual
does list techniques, but, the program needs countermeasures desparately
for realism and enjoyment.
As far as ground targets go, a single on-target hit will destroy the
target, which explodes into what looks like X's and O's. This is true even
of ships - a single hit from a bomb makes the ship explode and vanish into
X's and O's. Hokey. Worse yet, get into trouble and you can land on the
water in Jet. Loud sigh. C'mon Sublogic!
Positive Remarks - Jet does support fighting another player over the modem.
This can be great fun, even if there is no scenery or countermeasures. The
game still is very enjoyable, and does support Sublogic's wonderful views
and zoom features (tho sadly lacks the instant replay feature found in
Flight Simulator, which really would give the views added power.) But they
do add a "missile's eye" point of view, which shows on the screen what
would be happening if there were a camera at the very tip of the launched
missiles. Night is supported as in Flight Simulator, and there are stars
and a moon. Night flying is some of the most enjoyable. I would say that,
despite its problems and my long list of complaints, Jet is worth the money
after tiring of Interceptor, or if there's a friend to fight with over the
modem.
Another positive thought is that Jet is made by Sublogic. Sublogic is
known for enhancing and improving their games from time to time. They do
not release a product to the market and wait until it dies to release
another product. There are already rumors and speculation that Sublogic is
revamping Jet, although I wouldn't hold my breath for an improved product
any time soon. Since there are a limited number of flight simulation
products, and since Jet is a good game, I can recommend it after
Interceptor.
------General Sublogic Comments for both Flight Simulator and Jet
Neither Jet nor Flight Simulator are copy protected in any way shape or
form. Please do not abuse this privelege. These are excellent programs,
and it's unusual for a company to trust its users to this extent. Please
don't stab them in the back by stealing their software.
Sublogic makes and supports scenery disks which are loaded with extra
territory and graphics to explore. Currently there's disk 11 (New England
area) disk 7 (East Coast) and recently released Western Europe. With these
disks there is a Space Shuttle (scenery 7) hot-air balloons (scenery 11)
and churches and the London bridge and Eiffel Tower to enjoy (Western
Europe). Look for more information in a future issue of Amy-report.
Scenery disks are a greater advantage to Flight Simulator than Jet, since
with Jet you can't attack the scenery in any way. More scenery disks are
coming.
As previously mentioned, Sublogic listens to its users and upgrades its
products. They even improve the scenery disks from time to time and offer
a modest upgrade fee.
Sublogic doesn't seem to be content with being second best. Despite any
official announcement or information, I would be surprised if they didn't
improve Jet sometime in the coming year. This is just speculation on my
part.
III. Interceptor
Interceptor is the new flight simulator on the block, released in fact at
the beginning of June. It's getting alot of attention, and for good
reason, since it's state-of-the-art Amiga software.
Interceptor allows the user to pilot either an F18 or an F16 just as Jet
does, but it does have ground targets. It's all air combat. But, it does
most of what it does alot more superbly than Jet.
The game flows much more smoothly. It's organized much better, and it
always has much more clearly defined goals than Jet does. At the beginning
of Interceptor, one can choose to practice various flight maneuvers or can
go directly to Qualify, which is required before any missions are assigned.
Qualifying consists of taking off from the deck of the carrier Enterprise
and landing again. Then the fun starts as missions with increasing
difficulty are assigned to the player, very similar to what would be
expected from a MicroProse game. Interceptor keeps track of time spent in
the air, crashes, missiles and guns fired, successful missions, and more.
These statistics are much more interesting than Sublogic's "medals" screen.
Practicing consists of watching some flight maneuvers in the air from
different viewpoints (similar to Sublogic's "spot" mode, more on this
soon.) A text description in the manual describes how to perform these
maneuvers, but not nearly as clearly as it should.
After watching, the player can practice by following an instructor from the
runway up into the sky and executing maneuvers along with the instructor by
pressing the fire button. The name of the maneuver about to be performed
is listed on the screen, and when the player is ready he presses the fire
button. The idea is to stay right behind the instructor, but if he's lost,
pressing the return key will line the player's plane right behind the
instructor again.
The practice mode can be returned to at any point in Interceptor, to hone
one's flying skills. It's very nice to help a user practice his flying
skills and demonstrate some important combat techniques.
After spending this much time with Interceptor it should become obvious
that the level of graphic detail and sound is superb. Afterburners are
shown on the plane by making the tail glow yellow and orange. Buildings
have shadows and the ground scenery is more colorful. The graphics have a
faster frame rate than Sublogic's Jet. When qualifying I noticed that the
carrier Enterprise had a turning radar tower and was better rendered than
in Jet. When ejecting, the cockpit blows off Interceptor's jet, and the
parachute unfolds as the jet crashes into the ground and explodes into
triangles. When the pilot parachutes to safety the parachute touches the
ground and folds haphazardly as it would in real life. The sounds are
better with whistling winds, machine noises for the landing gear, and
realistic explosions.
The missions are exciting too. The player is briefed on the screen (only
the first few missions are described in the book) and then required to
enter a digital number from the enclosed code wheel (there is no disk-based
copy protection, protection is in the form of a code wheel.) Then more
information is given to the player, and then Interceptor procedes to make a
very anxiety-provoking sound similar to the what could be the beginning of
a television show, as the large map of the surrounding area continues to
zoom down to the runway, and the plane on the runway, until the cockpit is
shown. Then the noise stops and the player is inside the plane looking out
of the cockpit. The first time I experienced this I almost fell out of my
chair. Missions present their own surprises with a real-life Air Force One
that can be followed and watched as it lands, a cruise missile that
explodes if it isn't destroyed in time, and more. There are 7 missions
that get more difficult when repeated. There's also a free flight mode
with no confrontation, and, of course, the practice mode.
Combat is much more exciting with more realistic enemies, countermeasures,
and maximum G-force. The HUDs display is far superior to Jet's, similar,
in fact, to the movie Top Gun.
This is the state of the art combat simulator for the Amiga. It's
exciting, beautiful, and it sounds great (the more RAM the more sound
Interceptor has), and has interesting surprises for the user along the way.
Flaws - Interceptor supposedly does not have the realistic flight of Jet.
It does not have analog joystick support. Unfortunately months before the
game was released Electronic Arts representatives were in AmigaForum and
analog joystick support was requested. EA chose to ignore its users'
requests. This is unfortunately, and, for some (especially professional
pilots), infuriating. But it isn't noticeable to the non-pilot like me.
Interceptor has an interesting bug that will allow you to land on water or
on land with the landing gear up if you do so very gently. Normally,
however, Interceptor does not allow landings on water, like Jet always
does.
Interceptor is a closed product. No more missions, no more scenery. I
talked to an Electronic Arts representative who said that they are
considering making missions/scenery disks and that letters from users would
help. Write them! We may see some expansion. But, based on past
experience with EA products, this doesn't happen much. Once an EA product
hits the streets there are no fixes, revisions, or enhancements except to
the Deluxe series, and even that doesn't happen very often. We most
probably won't see any more scenery or missions for Interceptor. This
isn't that big of a drawback compared to Jet, considering how Jet handles
scenery anyway.
The manual for Interceptor is good, except it has no explanation for the
HUDs. I had to call EA myself (non toll-free) for instructions on the HUD.
What's happening to EA's documenation? Another recent game, Ferrarri
Formula One, has pathetic docs, but, fortunately, Interceptor isn't nearly
that bad.
There is a mission in Interceptor - the very last mission, that's totally
misleading. The enemy planes don't come from exactly where they are
supposed to, and the thing that the briefing says to attack is a non-
functional prop. It's not supposed to be, but they cheated alot. If I had
been a beta-testor for Interceptor, I would have screamed at this one.
It's not up to the level of complexity and believability as the other
missions are.
There is no night in Interceptor - no stars, no moon, just a day sky with a
yellow sun.
The "positioning" in Interceptor is alot weaker than in Sublogic's
products. There is a "from the plane" view, a camera view outside the
plane, and a control tower view. However, there are set positions that
aren't completely user-definable like in Sublogic's Jet or Flight
Simulator, and there are only 4 levels of zoom. This restriction on the
zoom renders the control tower view useless - it's only good if the plane
happens to be very close to the tower and in the right position, which very
infrequent. Fortunately the "spot" view is good enough to be exciting when
flying through San Francisco, and it does show missiles firing and flares
very nicely. Watching an ejection sequence from outside the plane is
wonderful. (Tip: Watch an ejection sequence right after launch from the
carrier - you will spin around and see the carrier in the background -
breathtaking). You cannot mix views or get rid of the instrument panel as
in Sublogic's products. Interceptor's positioning is good enough, but it's
not as flexible as Jet's. Oh well.
You'll notice my list of criticisms is longest for Interceptor. The reason
is that it's easily my favorite combat-simulator and one of my favorite
games ever on a computer (and I've been doing this for about six years.)
Since I care about the program, I find more to fault with it, and because I
play it so much, I find more to fault with it.
IV. Harrier Strike Mission
This is a game released by Mindscape that is fun to play but isn't in the
realm of the other products.
The premise of this game is based on a Harrier combat simulator - a plane
with vertical landing and takeoff capabilities. Sounds neat and different
right? Wrong! Harrier Strike Mission is basically a much-enhanced Skyfox.
It doesn't use the complex graphics systems of the other games mentioned so
far, and doesn't have the realism associated even with Jet.
Harrier Strike Mission has a map that's divided into squares. The goal is
to move into adjacent squares, and by conquering enemy tanks and planes
moving ground sites forward until the whole map is traversed, and the enemy
headquarters at the other side is destroyed. I've never reached that far
because I've been busier with other games that have been more interesting
to me, like Jet and Interceptor.
The graphics are fairly crude (again, flat and skyfox-like, not true three
dimensional, like the other games.) The ground combat and sky combat are
sharply divided by a layer of clouds. You don't see the planes when you're
flying on the ground, for instance (very Skyfox-like again.)
The sounds of the game aren't especially good, either, but they aren't
especially bad. The program does use the Amiga's voice for some warnings.
Many groan when they hear the standard Amiga voice being used, but in this
game it's supposed to be the computer talking to you, warning you of
impending doom, so it works well.
There are countermeasures (geez, Sublogic, even this thing has
countermeasures!) but missiles, unrealistically, seem to have an unlimited
range.
To be completely fair, this game is fun and enjoyable, but it's more of an
"arcade" type game and doesn't reach the realism or detail of the other
products. It really isn't a simulation. If the idea of a very advanced
Skyfox appeals to you, you may like this game. Others who are interested
in more realism, would be best with some of the other offerings and come to
this game only after exhausting the other possibilities. There aren't that
many selections to choose from, so if you need something else to play, come
to this game. It's not bad.
-----Summary
Flight Simulator II and Interceptor are my favorites, obviously. Jet is
also a nice game and I'm hoping they upgrade it and extend it past what it
currently is. The availability of Sublogic scenery disks makes these
products very appealing - I especially wish they were integrated into Jet
more complexly.
I personally think there's a market for someone somewhere to really take a
combat simulator very seriously. The program could be $150 if the company
chose, as long as they provided support, upgrades, and enhancements. There
should also be a hardware attachment to simulate a real airplane. Take
these flight simulators out of the "game" market and make them into a
professional product, like what we normally see from word processors,
spreadsheets, and databases. If it's necessary, charge a high price and
provide alot of support and upgrades. Somebody? The Amiga really isn't
being pushed to its absolute limits as it could be. I'd be interested from
hearing from more of you out there, especially on the "reality" of each of
these games. Any professional pilots want to write something on the
realism of the flight characteristics and combat abilities? I'd like to
see it.
=====================================================================
Phasar - Professional Home Accounting System and Register
--Henry Colonna
On to more serious subjects, Phasar is a home accounting program from
Marksman Technology, newly picked up and distributed by The Catalog.
I got this program when I first bought my Amiga, and I've been very pleased
with it. It allowed me to begin my year of accounting in May, when I got
the Amiga, instead of acting as if January were the beginning of the year
and I'd just been born in May, like some other programs. This is called a
"fiscal year."
There are two versions of phasar, one for 512K computers and one for 1 meg
computers. They are functionally identical except that the one meg version
does less disk access.
Phasar keeps track of income categories (up to 29), expense categories for
keeping track of where money is being spent (up to 97) and 39 accounts (a
financial "entity" that has a balance assigned to it at all times, like
checking, savings, and charges.)
Beginning Phasar requires reading through the tutorial to learn the program
before starting an actual personal accounting system. The tutorial is so
good that it actually turns the drudgery of manipulating numbers enjoyable
and watching your money dwindle away interesting. It's humorous because it
steps through a married couple named Eggbert and Eloise who run an egg farm
(of course.) However, besides the tongue-in-cheek humor, the examples are
very clear, obviously aimed at the non-accountant like me.
In fact the entire program is aimed at the non-accountant who wants to keep
track of where his money is going every day. The back of the box says that
artificial intelligence routines are used to quicken data entry. I laughed
when I saw that - surely they are joking, or exaggerating some little
feature way out of proportion.
Well, they aren't lying. Phasar will predict things like the date, the
next check number, and actual dollar amounts when it can, like during split
transactions. Split transactions are transactions in which money is
distributed among several expense categories. For instance, a check at
the local grocery store might be for groceries, car supplies (oil) and
medical (some drugs.) Phasar handles these easily and very efficiently.
If one should ever get lost in Phasar, the HELP key works and gives
information on what to do. Pressing control-l will give a list of possible
entries. For instance, control-l in the "expense categories" gives a list
of expense categories with a number beside them, to enter. In other
places, the program will also highlight a unique letter in each list. I'll
give a small example and leave everything in lower case, except for the
letter that Phasar would highlight, which will be in capitals. Let's
pretend we wrote a check to a hardware store with a funny name and forgot
how to spell it. We've written checks there before, so we can get Phasar
to tell us how to spell it. With the cursor in the payee slot, we'll type
the first letter of the place "y" and hit control-l. Typing "y" limits our
choices down only to those payees whom we've entered before and that begin
with "y". Phasar would present:
yOplut yogurt
yuppie country Club
yucK food restaurant
yUslimmer's hardware
<space> none of the above
Now it's hard to see the way I've presented it. The way it really happens
on the screen is that everything appears normal except that the letter I've
typed in caps is in a very contrasting color. For the hardware store
payee, I could type either "4" or "U".
I can hear some people screaming right now "that's bizarre and unusal!
That's not an Amiga interface!" No it isn't a standard, general Amiga
interface. It's unique and different, with an Amiga front end. But once
you get into the program, it has its own user interface like what I've
shown above. It is odd at first. However, as I began to use the interface
and step through the tutorial, it grew on me very quickly and I became very
used to it. I now think that the user interface is absolutely excellent -
it's different but it's one of the very strong points of the program.
Phasar provides a little calculator at the bottom of the screen to enter
manual calculations should you ever need to.
With income categories, a user can set up a "standard" transactions page
that will keep track of deductions for taxes, social security and anything
else, assuming of course that the figures are the same for each paycheck.
The standard transactions page can also be used to pay a list of regular
bills automatically. For instance, the home mortgage, car loan, service
fees for checking accounts, and any utilities with "regular" predictable
monthly amounts could all be entered into the program with only a few
keystrokes!
Editing mistakes and getting reports is very quick and easy. Phasar is a
fast program with disk access, but it definately has a slow screen refresh
rate. Uncharacteristically slow for the Amiga in fact. Reports can be
generated for any time period within the current year for accounts, income,
and expenses, and can be sorted in many orders, and printed to the screen
or printer.
Reconciling an account statement is the simplest and yet most powerful I've
seen yet in a home-accounting program. Phasar presents a list of
transactions, and the user steps through hitting the return key, marking
each transaction. If the account doesn't balance, Phasar allows editing of
transactions (for mistakes), or entry of new transactions if any were
forgotten.
Phasar will keep track of a user's "net worth" if he chooses to type the
appropriate information, like car, home, and loans. It will do an analysis
of those loans too. By "analysis" I mean remaining principal, original
principal, remaining interest, paid interest, number of payments made,
dates, balance, etc. It also keeps track of how much miscellaneous cash
was spent, by using a "cash category" and automatically assigning what
isn't accounted for (like what was spent for bubble-gum, cigarrette rolling
papers, etc.) to a "miscellaneous cash expense" category.
Phasar comes with a separate program called PHTAX which will estimate the
tax liability for the entire year up until the time when PHTAX is run, and
it will read the main data file automatically for calculation. The user
can design the way the tax form looks each year for automatic printout.
Since I haven't been through a full year yet, I don't know too much about
this part of the program (and am going to stop trying to fake it. GRIN)
Phasar also keeps track of budgets. It will list how much is spent in
comparison with how much was budgeted, and even do graphs. Unfortunately,
the graphs are crude, and this is the only place where Phasar will do
graphs. Phasar needs a graphing module desparately that's much more
involved than what it currently offers.
Phasar will print checks, but, honestly, getting everything aligned
properly can be a tedious process. This isn't a fault of Phasar - try to
visually picture all the different kinds of checks and getting your dot-
matrix printer to print everything in the correct position. With some
printers it's hard enough getting normal tractor-feed paper to work
properly! The manual does suggest places to go for tractor-feed checks,
which I suspect are much easier to use.
As a bonus, Phasar comes with a Date/Address organizer. Basically it keeps
a calendar of important events and will allow the storing of names and
addresses. I haven't found this to be particularly useful, though I'm sure
it was a requested feature. I wish there were an option NOT to use this
part of the program, to help conserve RAM.
Phasar is not copy protected in any way, and multitasks very well. I've
had it crash one time in several months of heavy use. That crash was non-
duplicatable and haven't happened since, so I deem Phasar a "very, very
solid and well-behaved program." It's highly recommended for a home user
with non-professional needs.
=====================================================================
WordPerfect Library Preview
--Henry Colonna
WordPerfect Library was released this past week for the Amiga. Here's a
brief synopsis of each program and it does. A more comprehensive review
will appear later.
Calculator: This is a programmer's calculator, a scientific and financial
calculator. It has algebraic and European options, and is large on the
screen (almost half the screen.)
Notebook: Notebook is like a big multitasking rolodex file. It will
handle data and store them with some information shown as a list in the
main screen. The screen for each individual record can be user-designed,
and the product supports the modem for dialing phone numbers. It has
standard fields for each file as a standard non-relational database does.
File Manager: File Manager is the weakest part of the Library package. It
is similar to the CLI-shell programs available in the public domain, and
similar to the classic "CLI-Mate" program from Progressive Peripherals. It
is quite functional and quick, and only takes about 27K. It allows for the
use of both physical and logical drives, and has standard
copy/delete/rename/create directory functions. It will also multitask, and
is equipped with the famous "shrink gadget" (as are all Library products)
so it can be tucked away until needed. One neat feature is that the "look"
function for ASCII files will go backwards (not just start at the beginning
but page backwards).
Calendar: Calendar is the strongest part of the Library package. It has
an on screen calendar (of course!) with arrows to flip through the years
and months. For each day of the month there can be appointments entered,
memos, and a "to-do" list that can be renumbered. There is a "calculate
days" feature that will calculate days between dates. It will archive
appointments that are past, and will copy standard appointments across the
week or month. Calendar uses an alarm program separately so that Calendar
(a much larger program) does not have to be booted to warn of appointments.
This separate Alarm program can use any digitized sound as the alarm saved
in the standard digitized file format. (Someone please tell me what that
is! I'm a bit in the dark on that - but in other words you can download a
"standard" sound from GEnie or CIS and use it as the alarm, whether it's a
yell, breaking dishes, or a human belch.) Alarm comes with a standard
ringing sound. Calendar is very impressive.
PEdit is a text editor that is based around WordPerfect but stripped down.
It will load in any file, and features some additional programmer's
functions like Hex Edit and multiple block functions. It has an improved
scroll bar over WordPerfect.
All Library programs use the standard Print program from WordPerfect,
though the one on the Library disk is currently a later release. The
products all carry the same appropriate keystrokes to keep similar
interfaces, and all use the powerful "list files" feature available from
F5.
WordPerfect Library is not the fiasco that WordPerfect Amiga was on its
first release. I'm not saying it's bug-free (I don't know of a bug, but
I'm sure there's one somewhere) but it isn't the fiasco that WordPerfect
was.
More information next issue!
-----------------------------------------------------------
WORD PERFECT CONFERENCE OF 05/31/88 DELPHI
==========================================
Editor's Note: The following is a very tiny part of a WordPerfect
conference held on Delphi with the head of Atari ST programming for
WordPerfect, Jeff Wilson. Only those parts of interest to Amiga owners are
included here. The entire transcript is available on Delphi. Thanks to
Delphi, Analog magazine and ST-Report for this part of the transcript.
Attendees:
----------
ANALOG2 - Moderator JEFFWILSON - Jeff Wilson of WPCorp.
MORTIMER GORDYR
DOCTORP CFJ
PIOTR REXREADE
HCALLESIS MARVR
RDGRABLE STARWALKER
GRG MADMODIFIER
BRG
-------------------------------------------------
PIOTR> Is WP Corp. doing anything with CD-ROM technology?
JEFFWILSON> We're really not approaching the new hardware
yet.
PIOTR> What steps has WP taken to combat pirate boards? (I have a few you
might be interested in.).
JEFFWILSON> We are in the process, with other developers, of tracking
down these offensive BBS systems. Things are still in the works, but I
really think something's going to happen this time.
PIOTR> Where do I send the information I have?
ANALOG2> Is that under the auspices of the SPA?
JEFFWILSON> Our legal counsel is in charge of the SPA's anti-piracy board,
and our executive VP is chairman of the SPA. It's almost difficult not to
have them involved with what we do.
GORDYR> Have you considered a Military discount like the school one?
JEFFWILSON> I really don't have any say in those matters, but I will
bring it up to our marketing department. There has been a lot of
interest in military and user group discounts, and so it is possible
that something is already in the works. I'll make sure the words gets
where it needs to be.
REXREADE> About piracy, how do you feel about the business of renting
software and will we see some real action in the enforcement of law in
that direction?
JEFFWILSON> I hope so. Just because piracy is conducted from what you
would expect is a legitimate business is no reason to turn our backs.
In fact, we are already looking into several cases of software rental.
Just reading a copyright should make a dealer afraid to rent.....
(anyone's copyright!)
REXREADE> We have a dealer in town, who allows trade-in software, what
about that?
JEFFWILSON> That's a little trickier. If they return all copies of the
program, it could potentially be ok. If they keep copies, it's just
piracy in another guise.
REXREADE> I would NEVER believe they would turn in ALL copies.
ANALOG2> Pete, you're on.
PIOTR> Just out of curiosity, how is WP's Amiga market doing
compared to the ST?
JEFFWILSON> The Amiga version of WP has consistently outsold the Atari WP
by a fairly good margin.
=====================================================================
Other WordPerfect News - Important!
--Henry Colonna
It appears that a few more bugs have been found in the Amiga version of
WordPerfect.
1) There's a guru when spell-checking a letters and numbers
combination. When the spell-checker stops, one of the options is 4) next
screen. Selecting this option will Guru the computer.
2) According to one reliable member on CompuServe, WordPerfect
occasionally makes his hard drive unreadable (invalidatable) with the "NEW"
command. Fortunately many other members on CompuServe, GEnie, and other
people I'm in contact with have used this command on big text files with no
troubles, and many times. This bug-report remains unconfirmed and -may-
not be accurate. I do not want to cause hysteria and panic especially when
I know of dozens of people experiencing no problems. I wish to stress
that. However, do to the nature/severity of the problem, and the
reliability of the source, I think it's important to post a "warning" and
advise users to backup hard drives regularly. That's standard good advice
for anyone with a hard drive.
3) Table of Contents will only use arabic page-numbering.
4) Amiga Preferences printer driver (to bypass the WordPerfect printer
drivers) evidently does not function properly under certain circumstances.
5) The PRINT program still locks up occasionally. According to two
WordPerfect Corp. representatives, the problem lies with WorkBench's
printer.device, which Commodore has fixed with release 1.3.
WordPerfect Corp. is aware of these problems and is working on another
release soon. If anyone is having any problems with WordPerfect currently
(and the current version is 4/15/88, obtainable free with a telephone call
and your registration number) please come forth with them. Everyone
(including the company) wants this release to be 99.99% solid. It's
getting there. The toll-free number is located in the installation section
of the manual. There may be some difficulty reaching WordPerfect
Corporation at this time since a new and vastly redone version of IBM
WordPerfect has been released and the telephone lines going to Utah are
overtaxed according to several reports.
New CompuServe Forum Software
=============================
SIG Software Version 4D(7)
Compiled by Ron Kovacs
The result of the Forum Product redesign is improved menus and
navigational commands, yet the overall functionality of the forums remains
the same. The new Forum Product will highlight the message board,
conferencing and libraries. Ambiguous commands have been eliminated and
global commands with consistent meanings have been implemented. User
attention is now focused on the information content and less on the
software product.
Terminology Changes
-------------------
o Leaving a message has been changed to COMPOSING a message.
o Storing a message has been changed to POSTING a message.
o Message Subtopics have been changed to Message Sections.
o Data Library has been changed to Library.
o Bulletin has been changed to Announcement
o The Short Bulletin has been renamed to the News Flash Announcement.
o The Regular Bulletin as been renamed to the General Announcement.
o Read Marked has been changed to Read Waiting. The number of waiting
messages will be displayed in paranthesis next to the menu option.
Function Menu Changes
---------------------
o This menu has been reorganized. Now, Instructions is the first item
on the menu. When instructions is selected, you can now get a
summary of the various options in a Forum by selecting the item from
the Instructions Menu.
Help and Instruction Changes
----------------------------
o A member can also obtain the complete HELP facility, a Forum
Reference Card and the Forum Users Guide from the Instructions Menu.
Message Changes
---------------
o Leaving and Reading Messages has been combined into one option,
MESSAGES, off the Functions Menu.
o The CHANGE age selection menu has been added to the MESSAGES menu.
This allows a member to change the way they read messages.
o A member now has the ability to read messages starting from a
particular date, which they specify.
o A member can now read messages by SELECTing a message section and
then by selecting the subjects which they want to read in that
particular message section. The number of subjects and messages
available in each section are displayed next to each section name.
Library Changes
---------------
o DEScription has been removed from the Library menu, but is still
available.
Conferencing Changes
--------------------
o The number of forum members participating in a Conference is now
displayed next to the menu option.
Options Changes
---------------
o The OPTIONS menu has been divided into 2 different sections, the
Forum Options and the Messages Options.
o Under the OPTIONS menu, a choice of INITIAL menu/prompt has been
added. This option will give a member the ability to choose which
area of the Forum they would like to access when they first enter the
Forum. You have the option of choosing Functions, Messages, Libraries,
or Conferencing.
Announcement Changes
--------------------
o The Messages Announcement has been added to the Announcements Menu.
The Announcement should contain Hot Topics being discussed on the
Message Board.
Description Changes
-------------------
o A descriptions menu will now be available form the Functions,
Messages, Conferencing, and Libraries Menu. This will give a member
the ability to obtain a description of each of the available sections
of messages, libraries, and conference rooms.
Miscellaneous Changes
---------------------
o All capitalized menu options can be abbreviated to the first 3
letters.
o The miscellaneous commands of WHO, UST, and SEND can be entered at
any menu prompt in the forum.
CBX Version 4D(40)
------------------
o A member is now required to enter the Conference room number they
wish to enter to conference. Public and special access to the
Conference rooms will be determined by the Sysop.
FORUM PRODUCT REDESIGN
----------------------
INTRODUCTION
------------
The forum product has been one of the most successful products we have,
yet it receives a lot of criticism. It has been considered hard to learn,
filled with confusing commands, and overall one of the most intimidating
products available for subscribers. The forum software product contains a
great deal of power and functionality, attainable by cryptic and less
than intuitive commands.
The success of forums is largely attributed to the information content.
Subscribers and Sysops are responsible for adding valuable content. Thus
it is our intent to highlight the content of the forums and push the
software and its interface into the background.
This will require change and change is never easy. We have not, nor will
we, take a cavalier attitude toward the experienced user. However we
must also consider the next generation of users and cannot risk the
growth and future of the Service on an intimidating, puzzling, and
hard-to-learn product. We cannot hold on to the current interface just
for some who have fought and struggled to gain expertise while we turn
away large numbers of subscribers due to confusion and intimidation. It
neither benefits us nor you. With these thoughts in mind, we established
the goals.
OUR GOALS
---------
1. To reduce ambiguity and confusing command syntax.
2. To reduce repetitious menus and focus on content, not commands.
3. To reduce the number of characters transmitted.
4. To become more consistent with other CIS product command structures.
BASIS FOR CHANGE
----------------
We base our changes on a year of research. This research is ongoing
and will continue to shape the Forum product in years to come. The
research includes feedback from subscriber and non-subscriber focus
groups, subscriber comments to customer service, comments from forum
sysops and others.
THE IMPROVED PRODUCT
--------------------
The new Forum Product will highlight the message board, conferencing and
data libraries. Ambiguous commands will be eliminated and global commands
with consistant meanings will be implemented. User attention will focus
on the information content and less on the software product.
ONGOING SUPPORT
---------------
The new Forum product will be available automatically, but the old Forum
product can be called up by appending an account id of "OLDF" when logging
in, (ie., Userid: 70006,256;OLDF), or by issuing the command "OF" from
within the forum. The old forum product will be available for
approximately one year to aid experienced subscribers in learning new
commands.
Command Conversion Table
------------------------
Updated: 04/07/88
by: Mike Schoenbach [76703,4363]
Old Forum New Forum
Commands Commands Full Command Command Explanation
-------- -------- ------------ -------------------
RF REA FOR READ FORWARD Read msgs in forward numerical
order
RR REA REV READ REVERSE Read messages in reverse order
RI REA NUM READ NUMBER Read individual message number
only
RTN REA NEW READ NEW Read new msgs in thread order
RN REA FOR NEW Read new msgs in forward numerical order
RS;F REA FRO: READ FROM: Read msgs from name/User ID
RS;T REA TO: READ TO: Read msgs to name/User ID
RS;S REA SUB: READ SUBJECT: Read msgs with specified subj
RM REA WAI READ WAITING Read "waiting" messages
RE;### REP ### REPLY ### Reply to message ####.
L COM COMPOSE Compose new message
B ANN ANNOUNCEMENT Announcement Files
CO CON CONFERENCE Enter Conference area
DL LIB LIBRARY Enter Library area
R MES MESSAGE Enter Message area
MD or V MEM MEMBER Enter Member Directory area
IN INS INSTRUCTION Enter Instructions area
OP OPT OPTION Enter Options area
SB NAM NAME View message section names
LN NAM NAME View library section names
At "Messages !" prompt/menu:
----------------------------
SF SCA FOR SCAN FORWARD Scan msgs in numerical order
SR SCA REV SCAN REVERSE Scan msgs in reverse order
ST DIS SCA THR PRO SCAN THREAD PROMPT
Scan msgs and prompt for disposition
QS SCA QUI SCAN QUICK Scan message subjects only
QSN SCA QUI NEW SCAN QUICK NEW Scan new msg subjects only
At "User Options" prompt/menu:
------------------------------
UM MOD MODE Forum mode (command, menu)
SM PAU PAUSE Pause after reading msgs (always, never, to you)
CN NAM NAME Change name in Forum
PC CHA CHARACTER Specify prompt character
ED EDI EDITOR Default message editor (EDIT, LINEDIT)
SU SEC SECTION Default message sections to read
RE REP REPLIES Reply info (list, count, none)
After reading a message:
------------------------
UA COM COMPOSE Compose new message to current msg author
RA RER REREAD Re-read current message
RE REP REPLY Reply to current message
MA MAR MARK Mark current msg for later retrieval
RP PAR PARENT Read "Parent" (previous) message
RR REA REP READ REPLY Read replies to current msg
SK NEX NEXT Read next branch of thread
SKALL NEX SUB NEXT SUBJECT Read next thread (skip current)
NS SCR SCROLL Do not prompt for read action
After composing a message:
--------------------------
S POS POST Post message on message board
S# POS SEC:# POST SECTION: Post message in specified section
SU POS UNF POST UNFORMATTED Post msg the way it currently
appears -- do not reformat
SU# POS UNF SEC:# Post unformatted in specified section
SP POS PRI POST PRIVATE Post message privately
C EDI EDIT Edit message
MA MAI MAIL Mail message via EasyPlex
MU MAI UNF MAIL UNFORMATTED Mail msg via EasyPlex unformatted
P PRE PREVIEW Preview current message.
P# PRE WID:# PREVIEW WIDTH:# Preview message with specified
line width.
A CAN CANCEL Cancel current message
RA RER REREAD Reread message you are replying to
(*) Posts reply as part of same thread.
Note: CompuServe will continue to support many of the commands that
appear in the left column.
Following is a list of the old commands not supported (Grandfathered) in
the new menus version:
A. Functions Menu
B, R, S, STONLY, STDISONL, STONLDIS, QSALL, QSONLY
Note: RM = READ WAITING
L = COMPOSE
B. Read Actions Prompt
R, A, SM, C
Note: N = NEXT reply
C. Post Menu
C, P, L, R, I, D, RA
CAN I USE THE OLD FORUM SOFTWARE IN FORUMS?
The old Forum software can be invoked in any of the Forums
by logging on with an ;OLDF appended to your User ID
(i.e. User ID: 76703,4363;OLDF) or by typing "OF" at the main "Forum !"
prompt.
MICROSOFT UPGRADES ITS APPLE SOFTWARE
=====================================
SAN FRANCISCO (JUNE 1) UPI - Microsoft Corp. has announced major upgrades
of its software for Apple Macintosh computers, aimed at attracting more
business customers to the Apple line.
"For many years, corporate customers have benefitted from the range of
Microsoft business products," Charles Boesenburg, senior vice president
of Apple USA, said Tuesday. "Today's products reflect that continued
effort to enhance the Macintosh computer's appeal to the business
customer."
Traditionally, most businesses have chosen IBM and compatible personal
computers, but Apple - which uses a different operating system - has been
making inroads into IBM's arena.
Upgrades for the Apple line included Microsoft Word 4.0, designed to run
on any Macintosh and offering new power.
The new features of Word 4.0 include capabilities that resemble those
offered in page format programs, including Page View, a "WYSIWYG"
(what you see is what you get).
Editing Environment:
Power tables for easy positioning of side-by-side paragraphs, numbers
or graphics.
Automatic repagination and the ability to move text around anchored
or fixed-position objects.
Microsoft also announced File 2.0, a faster and easier-to-use version of
its popular database program. A set of more than 120 templates has been
included to make Microsoft File easier to use with pre-printed forms.
Enhanced capability with the Microsoft Word merge facility makes it
easier for users to create form letters, mass mailing and mailing labels.
The new version of File also supports the color capabilities of the
Macintosh II, bringing color to business labels, forms and reports.
The company also announced shipment of PowerPoint 2.0 and Microsoft
Excel 1.5.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
AMY REPORT Issue #1 JUNE 13, 1988 (c)'88 Henry T. Colonna
All Rights Reserved. Reprint permission granted except where noted in
the article. Any reprint must include AMY Report and the author in the
credits. Views Presented here are not necessarily those of AMY Report or
of the Staff.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------