Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!uw-june!uw-entropy!dataio!pilchuck!ssc!fyl
From: fyl@ssc.UUCP (Phil Hughes)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Publishing Partner Professional
Keywords: groan
Message-ID: <1376@ssc.UUCP>
Date: 25 Jul 88 18:11:49 GMT
Organization: Slugland, USA
Lines: 51

I guess I owe this to the ST community.  Yes, I owned PPP for
about 1 hour.  Groan.

A little background.  SSC does UNIX consulting, training, sells
Pocket References and software.  About  2 years ago we bought an
Atari ST and Publishing Partner to do the graphics work on our
flyers and catalog.  Most of our typesetting is done directly
on a UNIX system, producing PostScript that we proof on a LaserWriter.
Final copy is done on a Linotronic typesetter.

Although Publising Partner has some bugs, it has been usable
for what we had intended.  We wrote UNIX scripts to include the PP
output in UNIX typeset documents.  All is sort of ok.  The things we
missed were: being able to rotate text, use the downloadable fonts
with the LaserWriter and have bug-free software.

I called SoftLogik in May after I received a letter that said that
I could upgrade for only $50 if I ordered before the end of May.
The new PPP offered rotatable text and, hopefully, had fewer bugs.
I called and asked if downloadable fonts worked with a PostScript
printer.  I was told, "Oh, yes, that is one of the new features."
I was going to order but was told it wouldn't be ready to ship until
the end of June.  I decided to wait.

I ordered it a couple of weeks ago (still for only $50)
and got it last week.  I returned it an hour later.  Here is what
I found out:
 * It does not support downloadable fonts with PostScript devices
 * It has all kinds of new features
 * It crashes under almost all conditions
 * The documentation isn't really done.  You get a big notebook and
   a few pages of documentation
 * The input files are not compatible with Publishing Partner

This last one really does it.  It might, some day, be bug free
(although I doubt it as it is written in assembly language) but
the fact that we would have to throw away all of the source documents
we currently have makes it just as easy to buy a package that works.

Why do companies have featuritis?  I would so much rather have
a program do what the manual says than have twice as many features,
only 20% of which actually work.

Anyway, too bad.  Anyone out there know of a good program that
will do publishing stuff and produce PostScript? 

Phil Hughes, SSC, Inc. P.O. Box 55549, Seattle, WA 98155  (206)FOR-UNIX
    uw-beaver!tikal!ssc!fyl or uunet!pilchuck!ssc!fyl or attmail!ssc!fyl

-- 
Phil    uunet!pilchuck!ssc!fyl