Xref: utzoo comp.sys.mac.hypercard:6801 comp.sys.mac.apps:6532 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!spool.mu.edu!cs.umn.edu!kksys!wd0gol!newave!john From: john@newave.UUCP (John A. Weeks III) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard,comp.sys.mac.apps Subject: Re: need info on PLUS Keywords: PLUS Message-ID: <849@newave.UUCP> Date: 3 Jun 91 03:11:28 GMT References: <1991May29.143748.1972@fwi.uva.nl> Reply-To: john@newave.mn.org (John A. Weeks III) Followup-To: comp.sys.mac.hypercard Organization: NeWave Communications Ltd, Eden Prairie, MN Lines: 83 In article <1991May29.143748.1972@fwi.uva.nl> zee@fwi.uva.nl (Daniel M. van der Zee (I89)) writes: > I'm looking for information about PLUS, a hypercard-like application running > both on mac and ms-dos systems.I would like to have a good idea about what > PLUS is like before -eventually- purchasing it. Especially interesting for > me are answers to the following questions: I am occasionally conned into using Spinaker PLUS under windows and on the Mac. All in all, I find working with PLUS to be very frusterating. One of my clients saw a demo a Spinaker, and now thinks that all business problems can be solved by Spinaker with only one or two hours of development time. As a C programmer, there are things that I can do easily in UNIX that I cannot get Spinaker to do. Spinaker builds nice interfaces, but they run too slowly to be of use. The only thing I really like PLUS for is prototyping when I do not know what type of machine my client will have for the demo. > 1. Is PLUS-mac completely compatible with PLUS-dos? Well, there are a few minor differences, most of them are are well documented. The WP field works a bit differently because windows does not have a built in text editor like the Mac, so they had to try to duplicate the Mac text editor. Also, X-commands and X-functions will not work on the PC without rewriting the code for windows. > 2. Has PLUS been updated to work with hypercard 2.0 stacks or does it only > convert and run the old hypercard 1.0-1.2 stacks? Has PLUS been updated on > both platforms? PLUS is Hypercard 1.x compatible, and does not have the features of Hypercard 2.x. There will probably be a big lag before PLUS is 2.x compatible because of all of the different versions and different vendors. > 3. Can the run-time version be freely distributed on both platforms or does > the manifacturer require licenceing fees to be paid for each copy? I do not recall any type of run-time version. I am pretty sure that everyone needs a copy of the program. > 4. How fast is PLUS. Is the switching between cards slower than hypercard? > What about scripts? PLUS is agonizingly slow, much slower than Hypercard. Especially if you use color. There are times with PLUS just sits and spins the harddisk while it is thinks--it must be doing some type of garbage collection. Even stripped down demos are sluggish, let alone full applications. > 5. Is it possible to delete all PLUS-menus from the menubar and replace them > by custom-menus without the use of external commands? Never tried it. > 6. Is it possible to work with variable card-sizes? I think you can change the card size on the fly, but I have never tried it. You can change the stack size any time you want when running a stack by dragging the corner of a the window. > 7. Can different fonts be used (and printed) in one field? Depends on which field you use. Text fields can only have one font, size, and style. WP fields can have mixed fonts, sizes, and styles. > 8. How does PLUS handle printing? Is printing better in PLUS or in HYPERCARD. > Is it possible to print labels? I only work with the LaserWriter, and I find problems trying to print in B&W from stacks that use color. The program seems to print in either black or white, and does not generate shades of grey. This might be my lack of in depth knowlege about printing from Hypercard or PLUS, but I rarely have to print. I have made screen captures and copied them into other graphics programs without problems. As far as doing labels, I have never tried. You can write genaric text files from PLUS, so you could write out the label text to be processed by another program, or write a script to generate the postscript needed to create the labels. -john- -- ============================================================================= John A. Weeks III (612) 942-6969 john@newave.mn.org NeWave Communications, Ltd. ...uunet!tcnet!newave!john