Re: general ? on 2gs

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer) writes...

>spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector) wrote:
>
>>    AppleWorks GS combined a GUI spreadsheet, word processor and
>>paint program (as well as telecommunications, page layout and a
>>database module). It's been discontinued, but you can purchase a
>>a set of the disks from Alltech (http://www.allelec.com) for only
>>US$15. Most people only found the word processing module useable,
>>but then I would be cautious to recommend it considering how buggy
>>and unstable it was. It was a _very_ powerful program for its time
>>though, there was nothing else like it 10 years ago.
>
>Several months ago, there was an online survey of AWGS stability.
>For most users, it seems, AWGS is quite stable.  For a few, but
>still significant number such as yourself, it is terribly unstable.  Why
>this is so, I don't know.  I've been trying to figure out what exactly
>messes it up.  Could it be the Ramfast driver?  Don't know.

    It has absolutely nothing to do with the RamFAST, or any other
SCSI controller for that matter. I originally used AppleWorks GS
on a ROM 3 with 2.125 MB RAM and a single 3.5 floppy drive. There
was also my brother's Apple IIgs which was a ROM 01 with 1.25 MB
RAM and two 3.5 floppy drives. It was used on both machines and
it would *frequently* freeze or display that infamous dialog box
telling you to restart AppleWorks GS (with a second button option,
pointing to the first).

    I lost *dozens of hours* of work writing papers for school
using that horrid program, it would CONSTANTLY crash on me and
take all my work with it. Let me also point out this was not
merely an isolutated incident either, it happened like clock-
work, each time the program was used, it would eventually bomb.
Even years later, when I ran it with 5 MB RAM and running off
a hardrive, it still continued to crash (at that point I was
using it for light jobs, like writing half page letters).

>I rather like the program myself.  Frankly, the graphics module
>with its scalable graphics is unlike anything else I've used on the
>GS and the only thing appropriate for desktop publishing on a
>high resolution ink jet or laser printer.  Other paint programs
>will result in jagged graphics on these printers, but not the
>scalable images produced by the AWGS graphics module. The
>database is the best available for the IIGS and the desktop
>publishing module is quite speedy on an accelerated system.

    I won't comment on the rest of the modules (mostly due to
the fact I've never used them) but I must stress and issue a
firm warning that there ARE serious bugs in the word processor
module which make the program unreliable. If you do decide to
use it, you should definitely save your documents every other
minute or so.

    I must admit, looking back now, that I was rather foolish
to continue using AppleWorks GS after all the trouble it gave
me. I really should have given up the fonts and spell-checker
and fallen back on AppleWorks 2.0 (these days sadly, there
still is very little choice for word processors on the GS,
which is why I use ProTERM 3.1's built-in editor--or better
yet, a modern word processor on my Pentium).

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca