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From: joel@gould9.UUCP (Joel West)
Newsgroups: net.micro.mac
Subject: Re: MacAuthor Review  UPDATE
Message-ID: <636@gould9.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 1-Jul-86 14:54:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: gould9.636
Posted: Tue Jul  1 14:54:58 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 2-Jul-86 06:12:13 EDT
References: <768@ucbcad.BERKELEY.EDU>
Organization: CACI, Inc. -- La Jolla, Calif.
Lines: 64

I'd like to thank Peter for including this reply

In article <768@ucbcad.BERKELEY.EDU>, korn@pavepaws.berkeley.edu (Peter "Arrgh" Korn) quotes the MacAuthor author:
>   2) We are adding footnotes in a release due later this year.
>   3) We have addressed this problem in v1.2 which will shortly be released.
>   6) Done in v1.2.

Translation: REAL SOON NOW

>   5) The About MacAuthor command appears when no documents are open.
>   It was relagated to this status because I don't think a command to
>   show the credits is much use.  About document is much more use.
>   That said, it would be a shame if the Mac user interface guidelines
>   were treated as dogma by all developers.

Wrong.  The main advantage of the Mac is that it is easy to use, and
that it has a consistent interface.  Those areas of the interface that
are defined by Apple ARE FOLLOWED BY ALL MAC APPLICATIONS.  In other
areas, one should strive to be consistent with other programs your
user might see (de facto standards.)

>   Re the bugs.
>    
>   1) The disc containing the staionery pad you open must not be
>   write-protected because MA creates a file on it.

Translation: I was too lazy (or careless) to check for that possible
error condition.  I'm point a finger rather than adding
a meaningful error message.

>   2) MA needs a printing manager in order to find out details of
>   the paper sizes available.  MacDraw is the same I think.

This is true, although most programs will assume at least one page
(US 8.5 x 11) absent a print manager.

>   3) Why do you want to copy it.  If you send in your registration
>   card we'll send you a backup.

For floppy-based users, you may want to have various configurations,
with different fonts, system disks, etc.  Also, can you say "hard
disk"?  How about "RAM disk"?

I do not use bootleg software, but at the same time, I only own
(personally) one piece of copy-protected software, MS-Word, which
is so poorly protected that it really isn't very inconvenient to
use with something like Copy II Mac to make spares.  We have Excel
at the office, but I won't buy a copy for home until I'm sure I
have a way of making an arbitrary number of backups and/or
an arbitrary number of installations (on to the same hard disk).

There's enough good software out there that's not copy protected
that you don't need to patronize companies that deliberately add
a feature to make their software more difficult to use.  As a
software developer, I understand the potential problem, but the
bottom line on copy protection is:
	1) It won't stop dishonest people;
	2) It will annoy and possibly turn off honest people.
	3) It is of marginal benefit for the marginally honest.
-- 
	Joel West	 	(619) 457-9681
	CACI, Inc. Federal, 3344 N. Torrey Pines Ct., La Jolla, CA  92037
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