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From: rminnich@udel.EDU (Ron Minnich)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: AmiExpo
Message-ID: <605@louie.udel.EDU>
Date: Sun, 18-Oct-87 13:04:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: louie.605
Posted: Sun Oct 18 13:04:11 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 19-Oct-87 00:12:40 EDT
Reply-To: rminnich@udel.EDU (Ron Minnich)
Organization: University of Delaware
Lines: 66

Here is the start of a message i was going to send before AmiExpo

   My father bought a nice program the other day for his Amiga. It
was simple, cheap, did the job. It is called (ready?) GraphiCraft.
Yup. It does not have a million nice features like DPaint. On the 
other hand, it was $15 and it works. Sure the output looks like hell
but DPaint is awful too and it costs a lot more. Which led me to 
think: why isn't there more software like this? Why is all the software
so complicated and expensive? You can't multitask Analyze with even
512K,which strikes me as ridiculous. I have not bought *anything*
for my amiga since DPaint; that product was sufficiently disappointing, 
and sufficiently expensive, that i felt ripped-off enough for all time. 
My wife refused to countenance any money spent on another Amiga
program- she used DPaint too until we realized we could not print.
   Now i see Leo's letter about the theory that all Amiga owners
are thieves, and that is why software does not sell. I am so mad
i cannot see straight. I will *not* buy garbage software, even if
i think it will help the Amiga. A $300 home-management package
is ridiculous. A $150 spread-sheet is ridiculous- especially 
the big-pig monolithic program we have been seeing- don't they know
how to take advantage of the amiga's strengths?

	After AmiExpo

I bought three programs. First was MicroFiche File, for $74 
(show special). This program is fantastic. I can not say enough 
good things for it; i think of new uses daily. The license is
terrific- you are asked not to use it on more than one machine
at a time- i can bring my MFF disk into work, use it, 
take it home and use it on the 500. Good license!
   Second was HaiCalc. $39!!!!
A fine spreadsheet, and guess what ... the PieChart is a separate 
program! As is BarChart. No Big Pig! PieChart comes up and looks for a copy
of HaiCalc and then displays the window. You can bring up more than
one window for one sheet. You can use different fonts. and so on.
A real good deal!
   Finally, Money Mentor. Go and see it. $75, show special. I am 
using it and love it. it has all the feature of the $300 
program save price. 

   I think the Amiga is here. This software is priced right, it works, 
and it has a very solid 'feel' to it.

  AmiExpo was wonderful! And i had the same feeling as Perry- the
Amiga is here to stay. Now if only i knew what to make of 
HyperCard and its impact on Amy.

   I just got a 500. Wonderful piece of work. Sure am glad
to not have to use KickStart disks any more. That always 
struck me as a kludge. I like the keyboard and do not
mind lack of detachability. The dealer tells me they cannot
get enough to sell.

   BTW my first monitor had a weird problem. In the drag bar, in line
with the blue stripes, there was a distortion such that the line looked
shorter than all others, resulting in wavy 'click-to-front/click behind'
boxes. It was weird; it followed windows around. I at first assumed
it was the 500 but it turned out to be the monitor (a 1080).
At AmiExpo i saw a 2002 with the same problem!

  Also Lattice 4.0 was for sale there. 
Live was there too- an amazing product. 
All in all a wonderful show.
ron
-- 
ron (rminnich@udel.edu)