Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ns-mx!iowasp.physics.uiowa.edu!maverick.ksu.ksu.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!decwrl!adobe!heaven!glenn
From: glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us (Glenn Reid)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: NeXT Software Availability (and Price)
Message-ID: <300@heaven.woodside.ca.us>
Date: 17 Oct 90 23:43:07 GMT
References: <1990Oct17.113743.890@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Reply-To: glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us (Glenn Reid)
Organization: RightBrain Software, Woodside, CA
Lines: 46

In article <1990Oct17.113743.890@nntp-server.caltech.edu> ktl@wag240.wag.caltech.edu (Kian-Tat Lim) writes:
>	I perceive three areas in which the software I have seen or
>heard about for the NeXT is weak or nonexistent.  If you know of a
>suitable product in these areas, for a reasonable educational price
>(<$300), I would appreciate hearing about it.
>
>1)	Simple database.

There is a wonderful product called DataPhile in the new software catalog
from Stone Design.  It's relatively inexpensive and looks like exactly
the right thing for simple database management.

>2)	Equation formatting.  TeX seems to be the only option here.
>I'm looking for an equivalent to Expressionist on the Macintosh.
>Could a point-and-click front-end be built onto TeX?

FrameMaker does some equation formatting.  I haven't used it much, but
it looks fairly complete.  FrameMaker isn't inexpensive, but it's
valuable.

>3)	Data analysis and graphing.

I'm not sure exactly what you're after, but maybe the graphing/charting
features in the spreadsheets can be used to advantage.

>	Even though the NeXTstation may be far superior in
>price/performance to, say, a Mac IIsi, the lack of software at this
>time makes it a risky choice.  This was also true of the Macintosh in
>1984 (when I bought my since-upgraded 128K), but at that time the
>perceived software needs were much fewer -- we expect more out of our
>computers now.

And there's a lot more there.  Already there is a good assortment of
high-quality software, and it's growing fast.  It is already a very
sophisticated platform for publishing and now data analysis, and although
there aren't so many special-purpose tools yet (like MacInTax, for
example), they can be developed fairly quickly, and I think they will be.

But then again, I'm a bit biased in favor of NeXT computers :-)

Glenn

-- 
 Glenn Reid				RightBrain Software
 glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us		PostScript/NeXT developers
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