Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!agate!shelby!msi.umn.edu!cs.umn.edu!thelake!steve From: steve@thelake.mn.org (Steve Yelvington) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: Pagestream for sale Message-ID: Date: 29 Oct 90 09:19:42 GMT References: <13352@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> <1990Oct25.151840.26876@unislc.uucp> Lines: 46 [In article <1990Oct25.151840.26876@unislc.uucp>, dgb@unislc.uucp (Douglas Barrett) writes ... ] > Now I am trying to prepare notes for a UNIX internals class. Now > I need multiple files open and these files get to 30+ pages each. > Now *everything* panics. You got it. Your working along cutting > and pasting - and the next thing you know three bombs. (1) Do you have enough memory to keep multiple 30-page documents open, plus the spelling checker, fonts, etc.? (2) Are you using the right tool? PageStream is not a text editor. Don't use a chisel to drive screws. I've been using PageStream to lay out newsletters for a couple of months. I've crashed it. But then, I've also crashed Aldus Pagemaker and locked up Microsoft Windows. Come to think of it, I've blown up something on every computer system I've used, so I'm not in a hurry to condemn Soft Logik as a bunch of incompetent geeks. Bugs are a fact of life. The question is whether the bugs are sufficiently serious and widespread as to render the product useless. That has not been true in my experience. I write and edit with a text editor (MicroEMACS). (If I used a spelling checker, I'd run it while editing, not while formatting.) I filter the MicroEMACS text into a format compatible with PageStream, plan the document layout, and then begin importing and placing the page elements. When I'm done, I write out PostScript files. That much of the program appears to work reliably. I have some disagreements with Soft Logik's user interface and the inability of PageStream to accept embedded markup commands, but those are design questions and not bugs. Since I don't use the spelling checker or color separation facilities, I don't encounter any bugs that may be lurking there. Keep in mind that those are fairly recent additions to the program. If there are bugs, that's where they're likely to be. -- Steve Yelvington Internet/domain mail: steve@thelake.mn.org UUCP path: plains!umn-cs!thelake!steve Snail: Box 38, Marine on St. Croix, MN 55047 USA