Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!wuarchive!rice!uw-beaver!sumax!halcyon!happym!irv From: irv@happym.wa.com (Irving [h] Wolfe) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Boycott 68040 upgrades that include Lotus Improv Message-ID: <994@happym.wa.com> Date: 23 Oct 90 01:33:59 GMT References: <1990Oct17.231522.17662@midway.uchicago.edu> Organization: Happy Man Corp., Seattle Lines: 35 In <1990Oct17.231522.17662@midway.uchicago.edu> phd_ivo@gsbacd.uchicago.edu writes: >If you want to >boycott Lotus, boycott them where it hurts them; buy Borland next time... Anyone who would boycott the most creative and innovative major company in the American software scene is a genuine psychopath -- the kind who really would cut off his nose to spite his face. 1-2-3 is not being copied just because it's been successful (though perhaps that was a prerequisite) but mainly because it's much better than anything else that was out there until recently. Recently, the same company introduced the new king of the spreadsheet field: Improv. And we were lucky enough to have our choice of computer -- NeXT -- validated by the smartest, most honest company in the software business, Lotus! We get it first, and most of us get it free. I run a company. I wouldn't buy 1-2-3 or any other spreadsheet program and told the few users who absolutely had to have one that they had to use the public domain program sc. That was _not_ to save money! It was because of the faults of prior technology that Improv corrects. If we had to pay for Improv, we would. It sounds like the first spreadsheet that addresses some of the problems involved in letting non-programmers write programs in a "language" that can't readily be read by anyone for checking. The only way we had to verify our past spreadsheet programming was to repeat what the author knew the calculations to be totally by hand or, in more complicated cases, to have someone write a C program to do the same thing. Then, _if_ the answers matched, we could trust the spreadsheet. Somewhat. Anyone who would boycott Lotus or Improv is either not looking at what the company has done (inspired, no doubt, by the Creator) or, if he's looked, is truly nutso! -- Irving Wolfe Happy Man Corp. irv@happym.wa.com 206/463-9399 ext.101 4410 SW Point Robinson Road, Vashon Island, WA 98070-7399 fax ext.116 SOLID VALUE, the investment letter for Benj. Graham's intelligent investors Information free (sample $10 check or credit card): email patty@happym.wa.com