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From: clif@intelca.UUCP (Clif Purkiser)
Newsgroups: net.micro.pc
Subject: Re: Framework II review
Message-ID: <87@intelca.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 9-Jun-86 21:42:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: intelca.87
Posted: Mon Jun  9 21:42:08 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 13-Jun-86 02:52:45 EDT
References: <729@tekigm2.UUCP>
Organization: Intel, Santa Clara, Ca.
Lines: 62

> Hi net.landians,
> 
>  What follows is a short review, rather discussion of my impressions of the
>  program Framework II, from Ashton-Tate. I have no affiliations with Ashton-
>  Tate, or any firms representing or selling their products. This is in reply
>  to a query that was posted.
> 
> ------------------------------- - - - - - - ------------------------------------
> 
>                        Ashton-Tate Framework II
> 		     Integrated Computer Software
> 
> 
>     For anyone needing a good wordprocessor or spreadsheet, and want to get
>     the most value for dollar spent, I would recommend that you definitly
>     buy Ashton-Tates FRAMEWORK II package. You'll have all the software you
>     will ever need as far as work goes. It contains a good wordprocessor, a
>     great spreadsheet, and a fair database. It also throughs in a good tele-
>     comm program.

> Tim Margeson (206)253-5240
> tektronix!tekigm2!timothym                   @@   'Who said that?'  
> PO Box 3500  d/s C1-937
> Vancouver, WA. 98668

	Another vote for Framework II.  Tim's review is quite good, I only
have a few areas of disagreement.

	I don't think the spreadsheet is not as good as Lotus 1-2-3. It is 
slower, (around 1/2 speed for some of my benchmarks) and it is not
as easy to move around in it (the cursor keys don't terminate a cell entry).  

	Tim didn't emphasis two of the best points of Framework II.  First
it uses a Mac like command structure.  Namely, you select an object and
perform a action on it. (In human-interface lingo it is object-verb oriented)
I have always found this type of interface very intuitive and easy to 
use.  Framework II, as Tim menitioned, very consistent changing the column
width for a spreadsheet and a database are done the same way: (select the
columns and then SIZE them)  In addition
Framework II reads and WRITES Lotus, Wordstar, DBASE, and Multimate files.

	Secondly, Framework II has a wonderful outliner.  Each Frame 
is either a containing Frame, which organizes other frames, or it contains
a spreadsheet, database, graph, or text.   A collection of these frames
can be viewed as an outline.  This makes it trival to integrate 
spreadsheets, graphs, and words into one document.  The outline also
lets you generate a table of contents with one key stroke! 

	I find that the outliner really helps my writing organization.  
It makes it very easy to generate and modify outlines and helps
you stick to your outline.  So when people say, "but I don't like the 
way this is organized , I can say hey you approved my outline."

	I think Framework II is one of the few general purpose IBM PC software 
packages which is superior to the comparable Macintosh application.
Framework II is almost good enough to cause me to trade my Mac in for IBM.

-- 
Clif Purkiser, Intel, Santa Clara, Ca.
{pur-ee,hplabs,amd,scgvaxd,dual,idi,omsvax}!intelca!clif
	
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