Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!portal!cup.portal.com!Lee_Robert_Willis
From: Lee_Robert_Willis@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Still no Ami businessware
Message-ID: <39887@cup.portal.com>
Date: 6 Mar 91 04:35:08 GMT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 80

>In article <39850@cup.portal.com> Lee_Robert_Willis@cup.portal.com writes:
>
>>ProfessionalDraw is overkill.  It gives me more power than I can use at the 
>>expense of simplicity and speed.  
>
>I recommend making sure you use Version 2 of ProDraw.  It's much faster
>than the original in many areas, especially text.  This kind of program is
>really designed for doing illustrations and things, not simple box and line
>figures. I have used it extensively in my Zorro III bus documentation, and
>I'm pretty satisfied with the way it handles technical drawing.  I haven't
>used it for  any more free-flowing stuff.  Of course, I also have a fast
>system.

I have a 25Mz A3000, and I am using version 2.  Lines, curves, polygons all
display fast enough, but text is terribly slow.  Data flow diagrams have a
lot of text.

The structured drawing program GemDraw is much faster on a mere PC/AT.
It gets its speed from having less options (e.g., text only comes in
certain sizes, you can only rotate it at 90 degree angles, you can't
strech, bend, curve, warp, spindle, or mutilate it.)  Depending on your
needs, this is either good or bad.    

Also, under AmigaDos 2.0, my copy of ProDraw 2 locks up any time I try 
add text.  (This doesn't happen if I boot under 1.3)

>>My letter to Gold Disk will suggest creating a scaled-down version 
>>('ProfDraw Jr.', or 'AmateurDraw', or some such), which would be a drawing 
>>package more like MacDraw or GEMDraw for the PC.

>You might just ring a bell with that approach.  Gold Disk does still
>support  PageSetter, which at this point amounts to a scaled down version
>of ProPage. You might also check out ProVector, which is another vector
>drawing (as  opposed to CAD) program out for the Amiga, and the first to
>support the IFF structured drawing form, DR2D.  I haven't tried it myself
>yet, but it looks very nice and I would be willing to switch over if I like
>it that much better.

Haven't heard of ProVector.  I'll look for it.  (It's not listed in the
latest issue of AmigaWorld, where I did my software shopping.)

>However, complaining about a tool being too powerful is rarely a valid
>point when you claim to come from a business prespective.  A business will
>rarely make such complaints, and if the tool runs too slow, they'll buy a
>faster system.  Witness the success of Ventura Publisher and AutoCAD on the
>PC.  Both are slow as snails and full of features.  But a business will pay
>for a fast '386 or '486 in order to use them productively. 

a) I own the fastest Amiga you guys make, for chrissakes.  

b) I disagree with your statement.  A business will buy a superfast PC  if
they NEED the power of Ventura Publisher or AutoCAD.  Businesses won't buy
VP if they just need to do simple memos, or AutoCAD to do clipart.  They
can do those things on lesser machines with simpler (and faster) software. 
I didn't have that option for ProDraw.  (Or at least I was unaware of
another option, e.g., ProVector)

>                                                           You would want
>something less on your C= Colt at home.  Now, both of these are more mature
>products than  ProDraw, so they have pretty much eliminated "slowness for
>no good reason", something Gold Disk could spend just a little more time
>on.

>As for real document processing, while I have done a nearly 100 page
>document in ProPage, I did it there mainly because of the graphics I
>needed.  For any mainly textual work, especially something on the order of
>500-1000 pages, no wordprocessor of any kind is going to compare to TeX. 
>It's not WYSIWYG (though the Amiga previewer might make you forget much of
>this), but it was designed for typesetting large documents and is
>inherently faster to work with than any WYSIWYG wordprocessor, or even
>partially markup wordprocessors like  WordPerfect on the Amiga.

Someone else suggested AmigaTex, too.  I'll have to look into it.  I'm
familiar with Scribe, so if its something like that, then I can live 
with it.  But I hope the rumors of MicroSoft porting Word are true.


Thanks for your comments.

Lee