Re: AWGS Reclassification

[gareth@vcn.bc.ca (Gareth Jones)]

Here is all the information I've dug up about AWGS, its source code, and
efforts to update it. It is an article which is currently _not_ in its
final form. Hope it helps, and comments are welcome.

-Gareth

Notes toward a History of AppleWorks GS
 
Gareth Jones
 
There's a public and a private story to AppleWorks GS (AWGS). The public
story has always been known; the private one has only been told in bits
and pieces, much of it very recently. I will tell the public story first,
then as much as I know of the private one. But first, I'd better describe
the program.
 
THE PROGRAM
AWGS is an integrated program with six modules: Word Processor, Database,
Spreadsheet, Desktop Publishing, Telecommunications, and Graphics. It has
both strong and weak components. The Graphics module is unique on the GS,
providing both drawing and a painting tools in one package. The word
processor is dependable, but doesn't have macros or footnotes. The
spreadsheet and database were the best available for the GS, and they
allow data to be saved as text files which can be imported (formulas and
all) into other Claris programs, such as ClarisWorks. Files can be moved
in the other direction just as easily. The telecommunications module is
barely usable, but it is there. The Desktop Publishing module lets you
combine graphics with word processed documents in a slow but
straightforward manner. With a little ingenuity, you can make very pretty
documents with AWGS.
	All in all, AWGS is a match for its contemporary, Microsoft Works
2.0. If it had been updated, who knows how much better it could have
become?
 
THE OFFICIAL HISTORY
 
AWGS was developed under the name "GSWorks" by a company called StyleWare,
which had previously released several well-received programs for the GS.
As GSWorks came close to release, Claris decided that it needed a GS
equivalent for its program AppleWorks, and tried to buy the rights to it.
StyleWare refused to sell the program, but said that Claris was welcome to
buy the company. Eventually, Claris agreed. It bought the company, kept
the rights to GSWorks (which it renamed), and sold the rights to all the
other StyleWare products to another company, Beagle Bros. Kevin Harvey,
the President of StyleWare, came to work for Claris and retained control
over the development of AppleWorks GS.
	After having gone to all that trouble to get AWGS, Claris did very
little with it. It released version 1.0 in 1988. A bug fix release
(version 1.0v2) followed that, since first release was very buggy. Version
1.1 came in 1989. Its major new feature was that it would work with
version 5.x of Apple's system software, which broke the previous releases.
 
ACHILLES' VARIOUS HEELS 
Claris did nothing with AWGS after version 1.1. As a result, some serious
problems remained unfixed. For example,AWGS locks up if the "Easy Access"
part of the system software is installed. 
In addition, AWGS fell behind the state of the art as GS computing
developed. It retained its limit of 48 point fonts even after the 1992
releases of System 6 and "Pointless," a Truetype font interpreter for the
GS, made large font sizes generally useful and popular. AppleWorks files
changed format when versions 4 and then 5 were released, so AWGS could no
longer import AppleWorks files created by the most recent versions. Teach
files became the most common format for "Read Me" files after the release
of System 6. AppleWorks GS cannot import these at all. System 6 allows all
sorts of interesting sounds to be attached to system events. Unless you
were in AWGS, that is. It had its own boring beep.
AppleWorks GS owners saw Claris' refusal to update the program as a sign
of contempt for the GS and its owners, and became coldly angry with the
company. (Most had a similar attitude towards Apple Computer, Inc. at the
time). But, even though Claris wasn�t doing anything with the program,
that didn�t mean that they wanted to let it out of their hands. On March
25, 1993, Jerry Kindall (President of Quality Computers) posted a message
on the Pro-Quality BBS that said, in answer to another post, �You are
assuming that we have not tried to buy or otherwise take over AWGS. We
have.  We have repeatedly been told that they are not interested.  Go
figure...� Finally, in 1994, Claris allowed Quality Computers to develop
and market a new version of AppleWorks GS.
 
THE SECOND COMING
Quality was what you could call a motivated buyer. They had previously
released an excellent upgrade to AppleWorks (the 8-bit version) and wanted
to replicate their success with the GS version. They hired a highly
experienced programming team headed by Jim Merrit, the former project head
for System 5�s Finder, made announcements as to the probable shipping date
for the new version, and started taking orders.
Quality split the project into two steps. Version 1.2 was to be a bug-fix
version which also incorporated internal changes, and would be smaller and
faster than version 1.1. Version 1.2 would satisfy their impatient
customers and bring in a little cash while they fulfilled their ambitious
plans for version 2.0.
	The list of new and improved features that Quality wanted for
version 2.0 was impressive.
 	General: Support for AppleWorks 4 documents, large fonts, and
system sounds.
 
For the word processor: macros, "style sheets," an "insert date" function
that would work in any text, not just the document headers, importation of
Teach documents, import and export of some Macintosh word processing
formats, "Show invisible characters" command (for displaying spaces, tabs,
and carriage returns).
 
For Graphics: Bezier curves and rotation of graphic objects in increments
of one degree.
 	For Telecommunications: zmodem file transfers.
 	For Page Layout: automatic word wrap around graphics and a print
preview mode.
 
Unfortunately, the source code for AppleWorks GS turned out to be a real
problem for Quality Computers. It was so badly commented that other
programmers found it difficult to follow. It was also so large that, under
the early version of the development system that had been used for its
creation, it would not even create a single AWGS program file. Two
separate sections had to be "hand-stitched" together by the programmer.
According to Bill Carver, an employee of the company now known as Scantron
Quality Computers, Claris exacerbated the mess when it updated AWGS, by
performing quick patches instead of a proper rewrite.
The programming team at Quality took the time and effort to modify the
source code enough to "build" a copy of the program under contemporary
versions of the programmer's shell and language. This was before any other
changes could be made to the code. When the extent of the job became
evident, the team began to fall apart. An additional problem looming was,
in effect, a substantial "non-performance" charge Quality Computers would
have to pay if it did not develop and market an update. The following
e-mail from Jerry Kindall, the former President of Quality Computers,
explains this:
 
There was a non-performance penalty in the contract for AWGS and AW
royalties combined.  Basically a certain royalty level was guaranteed for
a certain period of time (I cannot disclose actual numbers).  If
royalties fell short of this mark, Quality was to make up the difference.
However, Quality did not meet these levels, for reasons which were not
entirely their fault. Claris, for one, was supposed to refer all
inquiries about AW and AWGS to Quality, but some of their staff was
telling customers that the product had been discontinued!  Also, the
source code for AWGS was next to useless, and while the contract did not
actually specify that the source code actually be USEFUL, it clearly was
not in the spirit of the agreement to provide source that wouldn't even
compile.  Claris agreed, and did not hold Quality to payment of the
non-performance penalty.  (Royalties for AW alone covered more than half
the promised payments, and I am confident that if we had been able to
produce a working AWGS update, we would have met the contract.)
 
This brings up an interesting question: How close to useless was the
source code, anyway? In the Fall 1994 issue of II-Alive magazine
(published by Quality Computers), the editor gave the following reply to a
letter concerning AWGS 2.0:
 
"Celebrated IIgs programmer Bill Heineman also had a look at it along with
programmers from EGO Systems, publishers of GS+ Magazine. Everyone who has
seen the code agreed that it would be simpler to rewrite AppleWorks GS
from scratch than to attempt to upgrade version 1.1 into version 2.0"
 
Bill Heineman has a somewhat different recollection of events, which he
gave in a posting to the Internet news group comp.sys.apple2 on 9
November, 1996, and, in more detail, in private e-mail to me nine days
later. He stated that he was invited to work on AWGS about two months
after Quality got the rights. The source arrived on five 3.5� high density
Mac-formatted disks. He verified that the source indeed created version
1.1 of AppleWorks GS when compiled, and he made a few changes to make it
compile on his (yet more recent) Assembler. The source was archived, and a
copy sent to Jim Merritt and Quality Computers. He then started to work
(part time) on version 1.2 of the program. This involved internal changes
and fixes for about fifty bugs.
 
After three months of this, in his words, �I then started asking how I was
to be paid.  I was strung along and then I just stopped working on the
project since I couldn't get a straight answer about payment.�
 
What seems to be true is that Quality Computers did not realize what the
upgrade would cost, in terms of programming costs. Bill Carver, an
employee of Scantron Quality Computers, intimated as much in an internet
posting on November 18, 1996:
The projected sales would not even cover the development cost of so large
an
undertaking.  It's a cold, hard, calculated business decision that I hope
you can understand.
 
Other alternatives were tried. According to Jerry Kindall:
 
I do recall we investigated acquiring Medley, adding AWGS file format
support, and calling that the upgrade.  Unfortunately this was not
possible because the AWGS database and spreadsheet didn't HAVE a file
format; those files were merely disk dumps of the program's internal
representation of those types of files.
 
The update was eventually abandoned. Claris eventually agreed that Quality
should not have to pay the guaranteed royalties for AppleWorks GS because
the source code they supplied was not in usable form. 
Incidentally, Claris now offers an upgrade deal for AppleWorks GS owners
who wish to upgrade to ClarisWorks, but does not offer a similar deal for
AppleWorks owners. 
 
THE SECRET HISTORY
 
I began researching this essay to discover why two companies (Claris and
Quality Computers) would want AWGS so much before they had it, and lose
interest so quickly once they had it. This mystery was solved when I
learned about their difficulties in using the source code.
 
An additional mystery is why Claris wanted AppleWorks GS in the first
place. After all, when Claris was formed, it was clearly focussed on
providing Macintosh software. So why did Claris buy StyleWare in order to
get a single program, and let every other program developed by the company
go to other owners? 
 
My own suspicion (not backed up by any evidence) is that they had ideas of
developing AWGS into a Macintosh program. When they discovered that they
had bought source code that was not easily translatable to the Mac, they
must have been very distressed. (I expressed this theory to Jerry Kindall,
who thought it was unlikely, due to the differences in GS and Mac
programming. He thought that it was just to obtain a lock on the Apple II
integrated software market, and that Claris hoped that AWGS would be as
popular as AppleWorks).
 
To its credit, Claris did make sure that the program worked by releasing a
bugfix version (which was required, since the frequent crashes of version
1.0 reflected badly on the company) and version 1.1 (which was also
required for similar reasons, since the first two versions didn't work
under System software 5.x).
 
These theories only make sense if it is true that the source code to
AppleWorks GS is so poor that the program is almost impossible to alter.
Perhaps it is in poor shape, but it is nowhere near as poor as some
rumours have made it to be. After three months of work with AppleWorks
GS�s source code, �Burger� Bill Heinemann�s opinion is the most expert
available. He states that he could have finished writing version 1.2 in
only four more months of part-time work, and created version 2.0 in six
additional months. So, it could have been done, but (as mentioned) it
could not have been done economically. And that, to date, is the end of
the story.
 
Is it the end, though? Although there will almost certainly be no update
to AppleWorks GS, there is the very slim possibility that someone would
develop it as �a labour of love,� just as Wolfenstein 3D for the GS was
written. Such a person would have come to an agreement with Scantron
Quality Computers, of course. At the very least, it would be useful to
have at least the file formats documented, so that other programs could
import AWGS documents. (At the moment, only the word processor file format
is documented in a file type note). However, at the moment, Burger Bill
writes that
 
I, to this day, still have the original and the 2.0 prototype source code.
But unless I get in WRITING from Quality computers that I can use the
source. I am powerless to distribute ANYTHING.
 
Whether or not this happens, it is no longer as important an issue for GS
users as it once was because of developments in a number of �stand-alone�
programs. That, however, will be the topic for next month.
 
 
The Quiet Superseding of AWGS
 
Version 2 of AppleWorks GS, as envisioned by Quality Computers, would have
been a very powerful tool. However, the fact that it was never completed
is less of a loss than it would have been if other developers had not
provided substitutes. Every one of AWGS's six modules has been surpassed
by stand-alone programs. 
There is an important advantage of an integrated program, such as AWGS,
over a collection of stand-alone programs, and that is that any module is
instantly available for use at any time. With stand-alone programs one
generally has to quit, for example, the word processor in order to run the
paint program. This doesn't have to be the case, however. If you run a
program from Seven Hills called "The Manager" (or its shareware equivalent
"MultiGS 2.0") before you run either the word processor or paint program.
The Manager allows two or more programs to share the GS's memory, and to
be available from a menu. With this in mind, I have prepared a list of
reasonable and more-than-reasonable substitutes for AWGS modules. Each
should run under The Manager (I haven't checked this with the spreadsheet
program, however), and each supports the standard GS clipboard for copying
and pasting data between different programs' documents.
 
1. Word processing: For any quick-and-dirty word processing job, any
TextEdit-based program will do. Possibilities include Teach, CoolWriter,
WordWorks Pro, and ShadowWrite. However, if you truely need a powerful
word processing program, with macros and thesaurus and all, get a used
copy of WordPerfect IIgs 2.1. It doesn't give you fonts and sizes, but it
processes words just fine. Other word processors you could use are
BeagleWrite GS (which I haven't tried) and Medley 2.0 (a fascinating
program, now freeware, but which doesn't support the standard Clipboard).
One other alternative is to do your heavy-duty word processing in your
page layout program, which is perfectly feasible thanks to...
 
2. Page Layout: GraphicWriter III, version 2.0. Although GraphicWriter has
been around for a while, version 2.0  is the first to support cutting and
pasting text and graphics between different programs. It also has the
header/footer, page numbers, and spell-check features of a pretty decent
word processor. Seven Hills is committed to developing this program even
further.
 
3. Spreadsheet: Quick Click Calc. I have not used this program, but the
reviews have been excellent. It uses Publish and Subscribe technology, has
excellent graphing capabilities, and imports AppleWorks spreadsheets.
 
4. Database: There is no full-featured GS/OS database program that will
directly substitute for the one in AWGS, but how about using HyperStudio
3.1? I actually prefer it to the database module in AWGS. HyperCard GS
should also be mentioned, but it is not as friendly to The Manager, for
reasons that are explained below.
 
5. Telecommunications: AWGS had a monopoly on GS/OS telecomm programs
until the release of Spectrum. There is simply no comparison in features:
AWGS is barely useful, whereas Spectrum 2.1 is as good as it gets in
telecommunications, especially if it is enhanced with add-ons such as
"Talking Tools" for reading text aloud, or "Balloon," for shrinking and
unshrinking file archives.
 
6. Painting: Platinum Paint 2.0 is the best candidate to replace the
graphics module in AppleWorks GS. Its major competitor, DreamGrafix, does
not currently operate under The Manager, nor does the older program
PaintWorks Gold. All of these are purely paint programs, however, without
the �drawing� tools in AWGS. For the latter, Animasia 3D, a powerful tool
for drawing and animating, may be an appropriate substitute.
 
A note on integration and The Manager.
 
Zero page requirements:
AppleWorks GS (all modules) 17K
 
WordPerfect IIgs 2.1, 4K
GraphicWriter III, version 2.0, 4K (half of that used by version 1.1)
Quick Click Calc (unknown, since I don't have that program to test).
HyperStudio 3.1 5K (If you are going to use The Manager, HyperStudio's low
use of zero page memory gives it a crucial advantage over HyperCard IIgs,
which hogs about 21K of the zero page! If you are not, then the
programming language built into HyperCard is more complete than the one in
HyperStudio).
Spectrum 2.0, 4K
Platinum Paint 2.0, 4K
 
In other words, with enough RAM, and excluding Quick Click Calc (for which
I don't have figures on Zero page usage), you could operate all of these
programs simultaneously on a GS, cutting and pasting between them merrily.
I regard this as a very satisfactory substitute for the AppleWorks GS 2.0
that was never written.