Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!mit-eddie!snorkelwacker!ai-lab!rice-chex!rpk
From: rpk@rice-chex.ai.mit.edu (Robert Krajewski)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Windows Shareware
Summary: Why Is Is So Lame ?
Keywords: shareware, conventions, community
Message-ID: <10297@life.ai.mit.edu>
Date: 24 Aug 90 00:40:06 GMT
Sender: news@ai.mit.edu
Organization: MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Lines: 23

I'm disappointed at the quality of Windows shareware I've seen, especially
compared to Mac.  Now, I appreciate any that I find, but I've seen
nothing that is truly cool like Stuffit or all those Macintosh inits.

The most notable quality of Windows shareware is the fetishistic and
non-standard use of accelerators for menu items.  Exhibit A: GCP.
Wouldn't it have been easier to have one File:Open dialog box
(no accellerator, thank you), and some buttons inside to select the
format ?  The same with Save As.  WinTris has the same problem; I
realize a game can play with the rules more, but it probably would
have been better if it used checkmarks on the menu items to display
the state of the various items.  Also, it's Exit, guys, not Quit !

Of course, for a Windows do-gooder, there are some obstacles right at
the start.  The Windows market will surely dwarf the Mac community
within two years, but its community spirit doesn't compare, given the
nature of what PCs are usually used for.  Microsoft doesn't make it
easy for the little guy; there aren't many fora for the transmission
of Windows programming folklore.  There's nothing like Think C or MPW;
DOS sux as a programming environment.

Robert P. Krajewski
Internet: rpk@ai.mit.edu ; Lotus: robert_krajewski.lotus@crd.dnet.lotus.com