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From: rnf@shumv1.uucp (Rick Fincher)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: AWGS 1.1
Message-ID: <1989Dec5.195806.13131@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>
Date: 5 Dec 89 19:58:06 GMT
References: <8912050042.AA15991@decwrl.dec.com>
Reply-To: rnf@shumv1.ncsu.edu (Rick Fincher)
Organization: NCSU Computing Center
Lines: 36

For those of you wondering, I got the AWGS 1.1 upgrade on Dec. 4th.  I'm
in North Carolina so the East Coast folks should see it soon.  I ordered
on the day the Press Release was posted here.

General Impressions:

Everything is generally faster, particularly the spread sheet which is several
times faster.  Modules load faster. Support for networked imagewriter II's is
included, as well as for AppleTalk in general, it is not multi-launch, though.

I presume the database files are not byte range locked but I haven't had a
chance to see yet.  Byte Range Locking allows multiple users to work on the
same database (or other) file simultaneously (Scott- any word on this?).  The
different disk format for the database is puzzling.  The database program
seems otherwise unchanged.  Did they do this so the DB files would load faster?
Or, to make the files more compatible with FileMaker (a Claris Mac product)?
Or maybe to conform with Claris' proposed file exchange standard?

The new printer drivers help a lot.  Personnaly, I find the improved draft
mode performance to be the biggest help here.  If you printed in draft mode
before and set the ImageWriter II to NLQ, that was turned off at the beginning
of each page.  Graphics mode printing is just too slow for business purposes,
although the speed has improved in the new version.  So, being able to print
in NLQ without doing anal calisthenics is a big plus.

All in all, everything is faster, particularly the spreadsheet, many (but not
all) of the more annoying bugs are stomped out, and all of the features of
System 5.0 are supported.  No real added features, just improvements to old
ones.  The program is more useful now and more pleasant to use because of 
the bug fixes and general increase in robustness.

Has anyone else found neat new things or bugs (either old or new)?


Rick Fincher
rnf@shumv1.ncsu.edu