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From: evans@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Douglas Evans)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc
Subject: Re: PC Tools new version 7.0
Message-ID: <77118@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>
Date: 19 May 91 14:21:07 GMT
References: <1991May7.012810.8934@serval.net.wsu.edu> <3704@naucse.cse.nau.edu>
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In article <3704@naucse.cse.nau.edu>, wew@naucse.cse.nau.edu (Bill Wilson) writes...
>From article <1991May7.012810.8934@serval.net.wsu.edu>, by msmith@att3b2.tricity.wsu.edu (Mark Smith):
>> In article <1991May5.175313.21025@athena.mit.edu> kelly@athena.mit.edu (Kevin A. Kelly) writes:
>>>Is anyone familiar with the new version 7.0 of PC Tools (utility program
>>
> 
>They are currently taking orders for it.  In fact, I ordered mine today.
>It will not be shipping for a little while though.  The sales person
>was not sure exactly when.  If you order, your credit card will not
>be billed until the order actually ships.  The latest PC Week had a
>good description of the new features including Windows support.  It
>sounds great!

I would appreciate it if early customers of version 7.0 would give us a critique
of it. I recently dropped back from version 6.0 to 5.5 and I'm skeptical of
this latest version. It seems that CPS was in a big hurry to get 6.0 on the
market because the damn thing has some real annoying bugs. The tiled boxes tend 
to change shape at will and it is real unforgiving with inadvertent keystrokes.
I've had the screen split up into all kinds of ridiculous arrangements just
from a slip of a key. Putting the screen back in order is a real pain, and
usually just quitting is the best remedy.

These were nuisances but what really changed my mind about 6.0 was the amount
of disk space it uses and the slower copy/move utilities. Version 5.5 is not
as pretty as 6.0 but it is more stable and more efficient. The only thing I 
miss is the file viewer on 6.0.

Another little point that really burned me up about 6.0 was the way it was
advertised. It was shown in PC Mag and Byte with several color arrangements
that appealed to me. I spend as much as 60-80 hours a week in front of
different terms and for this reason I like to set my apps to "soft" color
arrangements to say wear and tear on the eyes. I come to find out that these 
color schemes were just advertising ploys. Even though this sounds petty, I
think it was under-handed of CPS to display their product that way.

If I hear similar complaints about version 7.0,  I doubt I will upgrade. I
learned my lesson about CPS' new marketing techniques which involve more
emphasis on pretty packaging and advertising and less emphasis on tight,
efficient code. I still run DOS 3.3, and I'll run PC Tools 5.5 until it is 
proven to me that they have eclipsed it's reliability and performance. 


                                      |                              Doug Evans
                                      | State University of New York at Buffalo
                                      |             evans@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu