Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!spool.mu.edu!uunet!ogicse!cvedc!gssc!timr
From: timr@gssc.UUCP (Tim Roberts)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.apps
Subject: Re: MAJOR problem with Parsons Tax Program
Message-ID: <6591@gssc.UUCP>
Date: 19 Feb 91 17:21:32 GMT
References: <1991Feb15.172639.14317@portia.Stanford.EDU> <473@adphdw20.UUCP>
Organization: Graphic Software Systems, Inc. Beaverton, Or.
Lines: 33

I have two major gripes with the Parsons Tax Preparer.

(1) "Recalculate All", ALT-F6, clearly does not.  This may be related to the
    problem which started this thread.  I made a preliminary pass through my
    return, then went back some weeks later with final data and made updates.
    Next, I did ALT-F6 to recalculate all (which takes multiple minutes on my
    10MHz 286), then I printed ASCII.  This asks if you wish to recalculate 
    before printing.  Naturally, I said NO, since I just recalculated.  Well, 
    the "printed" results were NOT the same as the on-screen version!  
    I redid the print ASCII, answered YES, and the results matched.  
    
    You can be sure I am going to make careful use of a calculator when I 
    transcribe the ASCII data to the forms.

(2) Except for the ugly "print ASCII", the fricking program CANNOT print to any
    file other than LPT[123] or COM[123].  This is a NEAR FATAL flaw, shared by
    a large number of applications.

    ATTENTION APPLICATION DEVELOPERS!!!  Many, many real-life users DO NOT HAVE
    printers attached to their computers!  Instead we/they need to copy our 
    FORMATTED print files to floppy and run them to a shared print station.
    Win 3.0 has the right idea; set the default print destination to "FILE:", 
    and the program asks you for a destination file name each time you print.

    While it is true that PD utilities such as LPTX and PRN2FILE can work 
    around this, (A) they do not work with every application and (B) why should
    I have to do this?  This is such a simple problem to fix.

-- 
timr@gssc.gss.com	Tim N Roberts, CCP	Graphic Software Systems
						Beaverton, OR

This is a very long palindrome. .emordnilap gnol yrev a si sihT