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From: ts@cup.portal.com (Tim W Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc,comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Re: Norton Utils and Excel
Message-ID: <33436@cup.portal.com>
Date: 1 Sep 90 08:28:27 GMT
References: <1538@ntmtv.UUCP> <679@dbase.A-T.COM>
  <1990Aug23.070322.9301@world.std.com>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
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< At any rate, once a company has fixed a program's problems in an upgrade
< (as Microsoft has done in Excel 2.2), users who do not avail themselves of
< it in all decency should stop whining about the bugs in the now-obsolete
< version of the program they're running.  It's also not the responsibility

Sure they should keep whining.  If enough people whine about Microsoft
having screwed up Excel 1.5 so badly, maybe Microsoft will do something
about it, like make a cheap or free upgrade available.

I don't use spreadsheets, but if I needed one, I would take Wingz or
Full Impact over Excel 2.x anyday, until I see evidence that I don't
have to worry about major bugs requiring me to have to update my
software.  If I had seen Microsoft respond to the 1.5 memory problem
with a quick free update, Excel would be in the running if I had to
chose a spreadsheet.  People "whining" about 1.5 might cause Microsoft
enough sales that it would be worth their time to do something about it.

It is possible to write software that works well and survives the
evolution of the Mac family.  I just wish more companies would do
so.

(Note: Microsoft does do this sometimes.  Wasn't one of the early demos
of MultiFinder's ability to not break old things to have it run
the original MultiPlan?  They just need to be more consistent).

						Tim Smith

ps: has anyone looked to see *why* Excel 1.5 barfs in memory above
a meg?  I'm having a hard time imagining how one could make a Mac
program do this.  I could understand, sort of, if the program was
ported over from DOS, but that's not the case with Excel, right?