Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!sun-barr!newstop!sun!stpeter!cmcmanis From: cmcmanis@stpeter.Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: PCLO and BoardMaster Message-ID: <134235@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> Date: 10 Apr 90 18:39:49 GMT References: <90097.202141CJC105@psuvm.psu.edu> Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM Reply-To: cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis) Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View Lines: 34 In article <90097.202141CJC105@psuvm.psu.edu> (Chris) writes: >Looking in the Feb '90 issue of Amiga World I see that Creative Computers >is selling: > > PCLO for 199, > PCLO+ for 399, > BoardMaster for 64.94 > >Please correct me if I'm wrong but isn't BoardMaster an improved and updated >version of PCLO? If so, I think I might have a little talk with the manager >at Creative Computers. Certainly they are a company that I wouldn't want to >be dealing with. Well they are the same and BoardMaster is the latest. Anyway, CC originally paid good money for PCLO and like all ?good? businesses they are probably just passing their costs on to the consumer. And while BoardMaster is an ok product and worth the $65 dollars they want for it, I would probably pay another $100 to get a decent manual for it. The one that comes with it looks like a printout of a giant ReadMe file. This is not to say it isn't complete, merely that extracting information out of it is tougher than killing Lord Chaos in Dungeon Master. Another problem with it is the way it generates plots, since the program is based around building little cells each with a little trace going through it from one edge to one edge that is what the plot ends up as, a zillion little tiny lines. This wipes out the otherwise quite wonderful PLT: handler because PLT: trys to buffer up all the lines before rasterizing the image to the printer. The "sample" board has over 64,000 lines in it which ate up more than 1.8MB of memory before I gave up on it. --Chuck McManis Sun Microsystems uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: Internet: cmcmanis@Eng.Sun.COM These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you. "I tell you this parrot is bleeding deceased!"