Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!oddjob!ncar!ames!oliveb!sun!halff@nprdc.arpa
From: halff@nprdc.arpa (Henry Halff)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: Reports (tm) for HyperCard
Message-ID: <50895@sun.uucp>
Date: 26 Apr 88 17:27:33 GMT
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Distribution: comp
Lines: 102
Approved: hyper-hackers%plaid@sun.com

>       There is a fix on Activision's BBS (and other places --
> call them).  I tried for two days to call into their BBS.  No
> answer, so the bug hasn't been fixed in my copy.

The fix is also on GEnie and CompuServe.  And, I understand that 
Activision is sending it out free to registered users.  If you're 
not using V1.1 of Hypercard, you'd be better advised to upgrade 
Hypercard.

> 2) You can put information from card fields into little boxes
> in your report, each box is able to handle one font.

The restriction to one font is more of a Hypercard limitation 
than a Reports limitation.

> Hmmm...that is a problem if you are trying to put together
> first name, last name, and professional title, with the last
> name in bold, so that it looks like something.  The solution
> is to write a script -on DetailSection- to format the name
> and the put it into one box, forgetting about the fancy bold
> stuff.  Carry this to the extreme, where you format whole
> addresses using a script and put the whole thing into one
> box.  Now the smallest address take up as much room on the
> page as the biggest one.

Make your address field scrolling (under the Field menu).  That 
way, it will take up only the space needed.

>                          I began to wonder, where is the
> gain in using Reports.

I begin to wonder, how would you have designed Reports (without 
redesigning Hypercard) to meet your needs?

> 3) Along the same lines,  Report provides these nice rulers
> to aligning things -- but there are no little reference lines
> in the ruler to tell you where you are.  You just have to
> eyeball it.  And, I never did figure out what the default
> margins were or how to measure from the edge of the paper to
> where I wanted something.  You simple fiddle with things and
> print again until you have something that looks presentable.
> The preview feature isn't always helpful.

Things aren't all that bad.  Reports has a grid facility and the 
capability to align selected fields with each other.

> 4) To use Reports you MUST put a ReportCard into your stack.
> Do you have any idea the havoc this causes in an otherwise
> smoothly functioning stack?  Suppose you land on the
> ReportCard and ask for information from a field that isn't
> there?

Unnecessary and awkward, I agree.  I put checks in my script for 
the right background.

>         Also, it subverts things that you set up in your
> stack.  E.g.  the idle handler I used failed, I set UserLevel
> to 2,  it set it to 5, etc.  When I got the stack sort of
> functional again, scripts began to looked like haywire (a
> reference to the method of programming computers with a plug
> board).  I began with the ReportCard at the back of my stack
> (I wanted it out of the way until it was needed.)  When the
> stack is sorted the ReportCard works its way toward the front
> of the stack and finally becomes the second card in the
> stack, which is not where I wanted it.  Now, Reports began to
> look like more effort than its worth.

Keep a copy of your stack without a report card.

> 5) Trying to move my stack from a Mac II to a Mac Plus proved
> to be the final frustration.  I wanted to find out how you
> move a stack that uses reports.  Well, I could not get it to
> work without or with Reports installed on the Mac Plus.

Bad news.  Activision should at least offer a de-install 
facility.

> (Okay, you don't necessarily want to move your stack to
> another machine anyway because it will cost some hundreds of
> dollars, roughly the cost of 10 copies of Reports to
> distribute a stack as shareware with the Reports function in
> it.  I checked.)

Bundle a report-card-free copy of the stack along with any 
Reports documents that it uses.  Shareware users with Reports can 
install a report card in the stack and then install your Reports 
formats in the report card.  People without Reports couldn't use 
your Reports formats, but, then again, you can't use shareware 
Excel templates without Excel either.

> If you want a RIGIDLY formated report, perhaps with graphics,
> you can tolerate a foreign card in your pristine stack, you
> have lots of patients with getting little boxes aligned
> correctly and you have no plans to share your stack (or you
> plan to sell it at a good price) then Report is for you.
> (And, you can have it.)

I think you're giving a good program a bad rap.  It's got some 
problems and some bugs, but it also has some pretty sophisticated 
features, like escapes to hypertalk in mid report.

hh