Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!utcsri!utegc!utai!garfield!john13 From: john13@garfield.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Hidden Multitasking? (Also Publisher impressions) Message-ID: <3651@garfield.UUCP> Date: Sun, 17-May-87 02:12:02 EDT Article-I.D.: garfield.3651 Posted: Sun May 17 02:12:02 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 17-May-87 06:35:27 EDT References: <3637@garfield.UUCP> <1274@ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu> Organization: CS Dept., Memorial U. of Newfoundland, St. John's Lines: 62 Keywords: Printmaster Publisher 1000 In article <1274@ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu>, page@ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) writes: > john13@garfield.UUCP wrote in article <3637@garfield.UUCP>: > >I'm wondering how many other programs that seem to take over the Amiga > >actually do > > I don't think any package really "takes over" the machine. If you have > Kickstart, you have DOS too. You might not have Workbench but as long > as you throw POPCLI (or something similar) on the system first, you're > almost assured access to the CLI, thus the rest of the system. > I didn't provide a lot of explanation on this, but I was thinking of things like - the Epyx stuff: Rogue will Guru if you have not booted from its (minimal) Workbench. World(?) Games can't be ctrl-d'ed at the start, since I think it uses all-black Workbench colours so you don't see what it does. I know you can just copy another system-configuration, but the point is they are *deliberately* making it difficult to multitask with. - games such as Leaderboard and Marble Madness that do odd things to the graphics so that, for instance, you can't properly grab their screens. - Printmaster, which I later realized had a serious flaw even if you could bring up other screens/CLI's: it has no gadget anywhere in its window, so if you click in it to make it active, it will think you have selected an action, and it may not be possible to anything other than print the same picture over and over again. Now *my* first thought was "link in a tiny boolean gadget that it doesn't know about" :-)...you could install Sunmouse or Moonmouse first, but then it's getting a bit hard to say the program "multi-tasks", except in the sense you have to have several tasks going just to emulate a "well-behaved" program. John PS I will see if I can do a review of Publisher 1000, but I can give you a quick impression now. Backspacing over proportional fonts is buggy. There is no (obvious) way to make it overstrike lines which is the >>BIGGEST<< advantage IBM desktop-publishers have (I have been using several of these lately). The "full-page view" is extremely limited and allows no editing, but scrolling around the screen is very fast and easy. The fonts are limited, 1 18-point, then nothing but 32 point and 10-15 point, although it does let you switch font directories online. You have to do your own addbuffers, and it does a *lot* of disk access (annoying everytime you want to use or reuse a different font). It locked up a few times under normal usage, no Guru, just the mouse off the edge of the screen in limbo. Print quality (I've only tried text so far) is OK, but there are *no options*. Even the wimpiest such program for IBMs has a "Draft/Final (overstrike)" selection before you print. I am STILL waiting for a 640X400X1 WYSIWYG fast word-processor which lets me use my favourite colour combo (000 and 555), and gives output as good as Fontmaster for my *Commodore 64*. My printer can microspace in 216ths of an inch, and has quadruple density if only anyone would care to use it. Is this not the rule rather than the exception? Is not a hi-res screen dump with overstrike a very simple matter to accomplish (Preferences aside)? Must we keep catering to the lowest common denominator, which seems to be the MPS-801? The answers will have to wait, as _Alien_ is on and Ripley is disrobing. Got my *priorities* straight! I will wait till tomorrow to roll-my-own rastport dump, which will only work on millions of Epson compatible printers, hence is heresy. (But I will be able to get great and fast and professional looking black-and-white print from DPaint II).