Re: WYSIWYG Word Processor for GS/OS?

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

romeo@anet-dfw.com (Romeo) wrote:

>Hi. I want to get a word processor that'll let me use different fonts and see 
>them on the screen the way they'd print. I have GEOS and that has a nice WP, 
>but I don't want to have to boot into GEOS every time to use it.
>
>What other programs exist? I assume Appleworks GS is WYSIWYG, but I've read in

>CSA2 that it is prone to crashing.

It is prone to crashing for some people, but not prone to crashing for
others.

AWGS is the best such program for the GS.

On my own IIGS system, it is very stable.  If you have 4MB or more
of memory and a hard drive, I would say give it a try.  It is quite
a bit better than GEOS and the database, graphics (scalable draw),
and desktop publishing modules are excellent.  The best you can
get for the IIGS.

AWGS is a complex program.  I've been trying to figure out
exactly what causes it to crash.  For example, I have a pretty
loaded GS system and it does not crash.  Steve Nelson (the
person that runs the ground ftp server) uses it on his two GS
systems and it does not crash.  Joe Kohn says the word processor
module, at least, is very stable for him, though he has figured out
how to avoid problems (which he says do exist) in the desktop
publishing module.  AWGS was reported by Mitchell Spector,
however, to not be stable on his two GS systems.

Thus, we do not exactly know WHAT is causing AWGS to
crash on some systems and not on others.  For sure, one
of the things is to NOT set modules for preloading.  If you
do preload modules, AWGS will crash.  However, Mitchell
does not preload modules and Joe still has problems
with the desktop publishing module (though he has figured
out what functions exactly to avoid).  Contrast this to my own
experience where (and I don't preload modules either) both
the word processor and desktop publisher are very stable,
even if I use it days at a time without turning off the GS.

AWGS is pretty cheap these days.  Something like $10 from
http://www.allelec.com/ Alltech.  I don't know if it is in their
revised web site, but call them up and inquire about AWGS.
Give it a spin.  It might work very well for YOUR system
as it has for mine.  ;-)

One difference might be that there seems to be slightly
different versions of AWGS floating around based on a
recent survey of "created/modified" dates of the AWGS
program file.

AWGS crashes less on me than most of my Windows 95
programs, and I consider THOSE programs very stable
too.