Re: Appleworks GS

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supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer) writes in message
<20000407005832.18299.00000165@ng-fz1.aol.com>:

>BUT with the LaserWriter driver, you can print the
>output to disk as a PostScript file which could then
>be loaded into any PC or Mac program supporting
>PostScript (.ps) files.  This is a powerful way to load
>scalable documents from AWGS word processing,
>page layout, or the paint (draw) module to a PC or
>Mac.

I never did take advantage of this ability, which is
quite a powerful "feature".

>But it IS far superior to any other IIGS paint program
>I've used and the reason is not any feature but the
>fact that this is a SCALABLE paint program.  Many
>of the tools are actually DRAW tools which use
>QuickDraw.  Try to print a Platinum Paint file to a
>high resolution printer and you get jagged results.

This is a YMMV thing. Platinum Paint could be used
in 320 mode which allowed many more colors which
was much more useful to me (and my clients) with
an HP Deskjet 500c. The printout on the Deskjet
from Platinum Paint never had "jaggies" to my
recollection, at least not for what I used it for. I do
agree if 16 dithered colors is adequate for what
you are doing then the scalability is a powerful
feature. On my deskjet 500c, however, the black
half of the dithered pixel was created by mixing
the CYM inks and was a kind of puke looking
green, which affected the overall quality of the
image. If I had a Deskjet 550c that had an actual
black ink cartridge, it may have been more
useful. Once again, YMMV. I did use the paint
module a few times and did find it great for
what it did.

>The one thing I liked about the database was the
>ability to include graphics in it and to "draw" the
>fields.  However, I kind of lost interest in it after
>HyperCard for the Apple IIGS came out because
>it could do the same thing and much more.

I never used Hypercard so I can't comment but
the AWGS data base is much more powerful
than most people realize. For my clients I liked
the integration with the spreadsheet and the
WP modules to create reports. Without getting
into the sordid details, it would be a major
pain in the "you-know-what" to try to use
Hypercard for the things I did with AWGS.

Try integrating your Hypercard
data base with a spread sheet, for instance.
I'm sure it may be doable but certainly not
as easily as with AWGS.

One feature that was also a limitation
in AWGS was that the whole DB was loaded
into memory, which made access really fast,
but limited your data base sizes to the amount
of actual memory in your computer. Isn't Hypercard
disk based? That would mean much larger data
bases could be created and used. But I remember
GS+ magazine getting a Mac because bugs in
Hypercard kept destroying their client list data base.
(I could be remembering that wrong though, it has
been 7 or 8 years, at least).

>However, there are quite interesting things you can
>program AWGS database to do.

AWGS is an integrated product, if you only
use the database independently of its other
modules you are only scratching the surface
of what can be done with it. Although I don't
use it professionally anymore (heck I don't
even have a complete GS anymore) it was
a large part of my consulting business in the
early to mid 1990's. We both agree that
we like it better than the classic version and
I wish more people would have switched :o)

--
Eric <chippys@earthlink.net>