Tim Haynes wrote:
John wrote:On May 23, 4:34 pm, "Michael J. Mahon" <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:John wrote:This is ambiguous, but in your opinion ... Which is better for a user today? For example: Although I have WP 5.1 for DOS, someplace, text transfer should work with AW5, AW5 is (far?) more popular, both seem pretty responsive to me, but WP 2e screen operates in text WIZIWIG, WP 2e has reveal codes, the WP gs and WP 2e are compatible while AW5 and AWgs are not (think). AW5 is a package with SS and flat file DB nearby. I don't know about the Macro capability of AW5 vs WP 1.1. I assume the 1.1 is more of a keystroke recorder thing. Is the Aw5 w/ UltraMacro (?) more full featured (like branching). How stable is WP 1.1? -------- It's fun to see WP working well with the 2e - amazing.Actually, AW3 plus UltraMacros was much more popular than any of the later versions. They came too late and offered too little for the cost to most users who already had fully TimeOut-enhanced AW3. I've always viewed this as a great example of fragmenting a declining (AW) market, which actually accelerates its decline. After all, if you're going to switch, why not switch to something on the upswing? The introduction of the IIgs into the Apple II market is another example of this--"too little, too late". -michael NadaNet file server for Apple II computers! Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/ "The wastebasket is our most important design tool--and it's seriously underused."Thanks Michael. I didn't know AW3 was more popular than AW5 as I have no sense for 8- bit Apple history and which systems and software were most used.Michael is right (as usual!). AW3 was very popular and very few people that I know of upgraded to later versions. This was also a time in computing history where people weren't necessarily accustomed to the now-infamous buy/upgrade cycle for PCs. (Witness the "Apple ][ Forever!" slogan!!!) Many people probably just didn't see upgrading as necessary or desirable, since they'd be using their Apple with AW3 to do productivity tasks "forever". And with the TimeOut enhancements added to AW3, well, upgrading to AW5 would probably be a downgrade for many people.
Actually, AW4 incorporated many of the UltraMacros/TimeOut capabilities natively, and AW5 extended them. But the incremental capabilities were not needed by enough people, expecially so late in the Apple II "cycle". Put another way, folks who had outgrown AW3 generally moved to another platform, not up the AW scale. A few diehards (like me ;-) added capabilities in a losing battle to "keep up" with the hardware and software advances on the PC, but by the late 1980's it was clear that the war was over, and nostalgia had set in. ;-) -michael NadaNet file server for Apple II computers! Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/ "The wastebasket is our most important design tool--and it's seriously underused."