Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!stanford.edu!msi.umn.edu!umeecs!zip.eecs.umich.edu!arie From: arie@eecs.umich.edu (Arie Covrigaru) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps Subject: Re: Filemaker Pro stupidity Message-ID: Date: 9 Mar 91 06:29:31 GMT References: <92710@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> <200@claris.com> Sender: news@zip.eecs.umich.edu Reply-To: arie@eecs.umich.edu Organization: AI Lab, University of Michigan Lines: 31 In-Reply-To: mlbarrow@athena.mit.edu's message of 9 Mar 91 00:04:37 GMT I would also like to add a change in Filemaker Pro that was made to solve one problem and, in my opinion, created a bigger one. Because of the IW II's insistence on moving back and forth every time a new page starts, and the annoyance this caused users of Filemaker II who printed out hundreds of labels, Claris made the decision to spool the set of records needed to be printed to disk before actually sending them to the printer. The problem is that if one wants to print a few hundred records (as in invoices) one has to wait for a very very long time (as in almost an hour on a Mac SE) to see the first page printed out in an IW. Not only that but if something goes wrong (as in loosing connection with client) and something always goes wrong, one waited almost an hour and never saw any invoice coming out of that poor IW, and has to go through the process again (and time=invoice=money). Now, I admit that spooling is a nice idea, but half spooling is bad one. It is also nice to know that Claris wants to reinvent the wheel in Filemaker, they reinvented network filesharing and now spooling, but that I see it as their responsibility to make it as good or better than the existing software or concentrate in doing a good database management program and let the spooling to others. By the way, the explanation about the IW and the labels is from a letter from Claris as a response to a complaint. -- ============================================================================= Arie Covrigaru | University of Michigan AI Lab Phone: (313)763-1255 | Room 149, Advanced Technology Bldg. Internet: arie@eecs.umich.edu | 1101 Beal Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 =============================================================================