Re: AppleWorks

["Donald C. Lee" <coach41@pacbell.net>]

Hi all,

    Bill brings back some memories of the early to mid 90's when the Apple
II revival was probably at it's peak.  Quality had put out it's own Apple
II magazine called "II Alive."  The market (esp. for the GS) was bustling
with new software and hardware.

    Where did it all go?  One thing I do remember was that Quality
Computers was quite agressive and ambitious, purchasing the distribution
rights to both Appleworks Classic and Appleworks GS.  Quality promised
updates for both of these programs and lived up to one end of the bargin
with Appleworks 4.0 (and later 5.0).  

    But what ever happened to Appleworks GS?  No one knew until (if I
recall) a letter from a reader of II Alive was published in the magazine.  
The editor basically stated it was not financially feasible for Quality to
update Appleworks GS.

    I wonder if that was the first reality check for many users....that
despite the revivial....money still came into the picture.   I vaguely
remember notes from various teams (perhaps online or otherwise) that
stated working on Appleworks GS was indeed a nightmare, etc, etc.

    Anyone who remembers care to note the details here?

Don

                         __    __ __ ___
  _________  ____ ______/ /_  / // /<  /           Donald Lee
 / ___/ __ \/ __ `/ ___/ __ \/ // /_/ /        coach41@hotmail.com
/ /__/ /_/ / /_/ / /__/ / / /__  __/ / http://www.geocities.com/smcoach41
\___/\____/\__,_/\___/_/ /_/  /_/ /_/    Class of 1992 10th Anniversary! 
                                                                               

On Sun, 17 Nov 2002, Bill Robbins wrote:

> In article <20021113193252.21158.00000706@mb-cu.aol.com>,
>  jwolf6589@aol.comnospam (JWolf6589) wrote:
> 
> > I am looking for AppleWorks for the IIgs.  I have a IIgs emulator on my Mac.
> 
> There are two flavors of AppleWorks which will run on the IIgs, the 
> classic AppleWorks originally written for pre gs Apple //s, although the 
> latest versions run best on a //gs, and the //gs only AppleWorks GS (or 
> //gs).  The latest version of the former is a very powerful program with 
> an incredible scripting language, and which pushes the limits of that 
> machine in terms of 3D data base management and powerful spreadsheeting.  
> The data base management still probably exceeds the capabilities of Mac 
> AppleWorks 6 offering.  Classic Appleworks also has few if any obvious 
> bugs for so complex a program, having been around and widely used for 
> most of a decade.  (For a number of years (pre Windows) I understand it 
> was the most sold software application, bar none.)  It's deficiencies 
> are in the area of all those neat things you can do when working from a 
> graphics interface and have complete control of everything your printer 
> can do.  It does operate from a text based interface and has limited 
> printer support.
> 
> AppleWorks GS is a completely unrelated program designed to run from the 
> //gs's gui.  The hype makes it look like a real competitor to 
> Claris/AppleWorks for the Mac.  To illustrate the reality however, 
> sometime in the early nineties a company, Scantron Quality Computers, 
> purchased the rights from Apple Computer to develop both AppleWorks 
> flavors.  Classic went on to become the program mentioned above.  More 
> than one team of crack //gs programmers had a go at AppleWorks GS and 
> eventually threw up their hands in frustration and defeat.  The program 
> had always had the reputation of being rather buggy, and these 
> programmers attempts to improve the situation and upgrade the program 
> met with a lack of adequate documentation and very sloppy "hacking" of 
> the code, as I understand it.  Quality Computers lost their rather 
> substantive investment which may have contributed to the eventual demise 
> of the company.  Unless you already know what you're getting into, it 
> might be wise to see if you can get comment from those who have used the 
> program before encountering what could be a very unsatisfactory 
> experience.
>