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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. -------------------------------------------------------------------------