Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!bcm!dimacs.rutgers.edu!rutgers!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Still no Ami businessware
Message-ID: <19655@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 8 Mar 91 23:41:15 GMT
References: <39887@cup.portal.com>
Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 54

In article <39887@cup.portal.com> Lee_Robert_Willis@cup.portal.com writes:
>>In article <39850@cup.portal.com> Lee_Robert_Willis@cup.portal.com writes:

>>I recommend making sure you use Version 2 of ProDraw.  It's much faster
>>than the original in many areas, especially 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.    

For any real professional work, I don't think you can possibly live with
something like that.  In my work with technical illustrations, I need fonts
that are scaleable within at least a point of being perfect.  That will
_require_ vector fonts, even though a program could kludge it and go faster
with bitmapped fonts, if it chooses to limit the sizes.  

>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.)

It has been advertised recently; perhaps in Amazing rather than AmigaWorld,
I'm not sure.  I am very interested in trying it myself.

>>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.  

>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, 

Of course not, they'll use WordPerfect or something.  You can too, but you're
not writing simple memos, you're interesting in doing things that are pretty
much only handled by high end system.

>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.

Microsoft Word would be at least a partial step above most Amiga wordprocessors,
and a step below any DTP program, in terms of layout power if not features.  I
used Scribe extensively in school, and have yet to find a wordprocessor that
even comes close to its power.  TeX, on the other hand, is more powerful and
nearly as easy to lean as Scribe.  Both are intended for writing large
documents.  Many people say the Amiga has the best TeX implementation going, 
and although I have only played with it, I have no reason to disbelieve this
assertion.

-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: hazy     BIX: hazy
	"What works for me might work for you"	-Jimmy Buffett