Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!rutgers!psuvax1!psuvm!auvm!giampal
From: GIAMPAL@auvm.auvm.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: THINKER Re: Hypertext -- REVIEW
Message-ID: <91118.163414GIAMPAL@auvm.auvm.edu>
Date: 28 Apr 91 20:34:14 GMT
References: <91114.015549MBS110@psuvm.psu.edu>
 <1991Apr25.211821.412@convex.com> <313@atacama.cs.utexas.edu>
 <1991Apr27.005035.12723@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>
Organization: The American University - University Computing Center
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In article <1991Apr27.005035.12723@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>, xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG
(Kent Paul Dolan) says:
>Just want to mention in passing that there _does_ exist a commercial
>hypertext product for the Amiga, called Thinker, advertised in several
>of the Amiga magazines, and relatively moderately priced ($80). The
>included graphics software is total garbage, but the hypertext package
>itself seems rock solid and is a lot of fun.
Yes, Thinker is a solid product, but the intent is quite different from
HT.  First off, Thinker is also an editor, not just a hypertext program
(which is fine if you like Thinker as an editor).  Second, Thinker is
intended for _very_ large documents and so it uses some kind of buffering
scheme to keep only a part of the file in memory at once.  This is great if
you have a nice fast hard disk, but with floppies it is unbearable.  Third,
Thinker in the last incarnation I used was 165K in size.  HT is < 45K in
size, something that all of us with only 1 meg of memory have to take into
consideration.

Thinker is an interesting product and does have some features I wish were
in HT.  You really have to look and see what you want to do with hypertext
to decide which is appropriate.  I don't like Thinker as an editor, and
so wouldn't want to use it.  Thinker also keeps your files in a proprietary
(binary) format, something I don't appreciate too much, but then again it
can include graphics directly in the document (whereas HT would just
have the picture displayed).  Like I said, you need to look at the two
and see which one suits your needs better.


>If about 50,000 of you rag on me constantly, I might get the review
>written that I promised the author back in August. What I wouldn't give
Mike Meyer already wrote a very nice review for the hypermedia mailing
list.  I'll try and forward that along to the net (or maybe mike can
re-post it here).

--dominic