Re: What has changed in the Apple world last 6 months?

[dalloff@gcfn.org (Dave Althoff Jr)]

Paul Grammens (grammens@svn.net) wrote:

: ground.ecn AppleII Librarian <apple2pd@garp3.icaen.uiowa.edu> wrote

: > I use AW5 daily at my office.  I am in charge of data
: > collection and entry in our research unit.  Almost all data is entered
: > into AW5.1 databases.  Even the data that comes in as Excel spreadsheets I
: > usually imort into AW5.1 databases.  We've tried Flemaster Pro on the
: > Macs, but AW5.1 is simply faster and easier.  After preliminary review
: > with reports and stats on the "Apple II" machines, I upload the data to my
: > Unix workstation for final workup and analysis using SAS.  The Apple II
: > and AW5.1 is the best tool for data entry/verification/monitoring IMHO.
: >
: > I have seven computers operating in my office.  A MacSE running
: > Appleshare3.0.3.  Connected to this are 2 IIe's, a IIGS (Rom1),
: > MacLCIII&IIe card, and PowerPC 8150.  In other locations connected to the
: > Appleshare network are 2 more MacLC&IIe cards, and a PowerMac 7200.  A
: > commonly used applic on the Mac8150 and 7200 is DejaII-Appleworks5.1
: > combo.

: > Even if AW5.1 was not Y2K compliant I would still find a way to use it as
: > the best tool for the job.  When real work gets done, it gets done on
: > 'Apple II technology'.  To each their own ;-)
: >

: Your post is interesting. I would have thought that everyone still using AW
: on an Apple II was doing that because they didn't see any need to upgrade to
: newer hardware and software. Yet you have newer hardware, but still prefer
: AW.
: Maybe I'm wrong.  I've run AppleWorks on my Apple II's, just to play with
: it. I never learned to use it properly, of course. I used to use Lotus
: products, but had to switch to MS Office for compatibility.
: -Paul

I handle audio/visual services for a small private University
(capital.edu).  We have a database of several classrooms that our
department controls, our equipment delivery instructions for any given
day, and the daily charge-out schedules for about a dozen bits of
high-demand low-supply equipment.  All of that is on Paradox 7.  Until
last week, the overall equipment inventory database was on AppleWorks 3.0,
running on a 1.25Mb Apple IIgs which happens to have a Focus-20 and a copy
of GS/OS.  That database began life as a custom rBase database; when I
took the job I ported it to the Apple.  

About six months ago, at the insistence of my boss, I ported the equipment
database to Access, with an eye towards also converting all the Paradox
stuff to Access.  At the time I could see no reason to do so, as it would
require re-writing all my ObjectPAL routines in VBA, and Access doesn't
run as well on my PC at work.  The Access equipment database worked for a
while, then I had a data crash from which I could not recover. 
Fortunately, I still had the AppleWorks database, and I went back to that,
brought it up to date, and that's the one I ported to Paradox.  I need to
get everything into Paradox so that I can connect charge-outs and
deliveries to the inventory, but what I am finding is that to do the
data entry and manipulation that I could do easily in AppleWorks requires
that I jump through a few more hoops in Paradox.  So I need to build some
ObjectPAL scripts to do the things that are built-in to AppleWorks.

AppleWorks has its place in the 'real world'.  Apples are not just for
Luddites!

--Dave Althoff, ][.
-- 
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