Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!umd5!purdue!gatech!uflorida!codas!usfvax2!jc3b21!fgd3
From: fgd3@jc3b21.UUCP (Fabbian G. Dufoe)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Textcraft Plus
Message-ID: <335@jc3b21.UUCP>
Date: 11 Mar 88 09:18:58 GMT
References: <53@kenobi.UUCP> <3427@cbmvax.UUCP>
Organization: St. Petersburg Jr. College, FL
Lines: 73
Summary: Fatal flaw in Textcraft Plus

In article <3427@cbmvax.UUCP>, campbell@cbmvax.UUCP (John Campbell SW) writes:
> In response to an earlier posting regarding Textcraft Plus:
> 
> *  Does anyone else own Textcraft Plus?
> 
> The answer is a resounding yes, ...
> 
> *  Does everyone feel it is a "bogus" piece of software?
> 
> In summary, please do not crowd the group with derogatory and unsubstantiated
> comments about any product.  We are all busy and would prefer to help each 
> other with advice, hints, reviews, and suggestions.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> John Campbell
> Worlwide Software and Product Support Manager
> Commodore International Limited

I received my copy of Textcraft Plus through the upgrade program this week.
My first reaction was very favorable.  The documentation, although
simplistic, covers the program's features pretty well.  It's good
documentation for novice users, I think.

As I worked with Textcraft Plus I felt it was markedly better than the
original Textcraft.  Almost all the complaints I had about Textcraft were
fixed.  Textcraft Plus offers better control of headers and footers, it
runs in a window on the Workbench screen (so you can get at other
applications), and it has a provision for automatically including the time
and date.

The date function has a small bug, however.  The manual says it will print
the current date.  In fact it prints the preceding date.  Still, I was
pleased with the program until I tried to print a multi-page document.

Textcraft Plus doesn't handle page length properly--at least with my
printer.  I modified my printer driver to see what the problem was.  I
entered a short test document with a page length of 6, top margin of 1 and
bottom margin of 1.  Textcraft Plus sends the following codes to the
printer.device:

     Code name		Description

     aSHORP0		Normal pitch
     aSGR0		Normal character set
     aSUS0		Normalize the line
     aCAM		Clear margins
     aSLPP		Set form length (Parms[0] == 6)
     aSHORP2		Elite on (Parms[0] == 2)
     aDEN2		NLQ on (Parms[0] == 2)

At this point it begins sending newlines and text.  All would be well
except there aren't enough newlines to take care of the top and bottom
margins.  Well, you say, that's why we set the form length.  Wrong!  How is
the printer supposed to figure out that it should go to a new page after
four lines?  It can't if you don't set the top and bottom margins.

Needless to say, the program is totally useless to me if I can't solve this
problem.  Does anybody have any suggestions?  Has anyone else experienced a
similar problem?  In particular, if you have one of the printers for which
Commodore supplied a printer driver can you print multi-page documents on
continuous form paper with correct spacing?

I also have an asthetic objection to the program: the right and bottom
borders on the main text window are too big.  They don't need to be any
bigger than is required for the resizing gadget.  The display would look
better if the borders were made thinner.

--Fabbian Dufoe
  350 Ling-A-Mor Terrace South
  St. Petersburg, Florida  33705
  813-823-2350

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