Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!cmcl2!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: AppleLink PE woes
Keywords: AppleLink ACU
Message-ID: <8742@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 23 Oct 88 21:43:04 GMT
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 47

The people who wrote the AppleLink PE software seem to not know how
to design software.

When I first joined AppleLink PE, I saw a "new version of AppleLink"
to download.  Supposedly when run it would copy your old working
disk to a new one, applying updates in the process.  (Why such a
complicated scheme is considered necessary I don't know -- perhaps
some form of copy protection.)  This wasn't really how I wanted to
operate, since like most serious computer users I run software from
a hard disk, not 3.5" fwoppies.  However, I managed to get set up
the way they wanted, and found that the "newer" version (which did
have a higher version number) would simply keep asking me to insert
the system disk.  I never could get it to work following the
supplied instructions.  Upon looking at the "newer" version I saw
that it wasn't organized at all the same as the one I bought from
my Apple dealer; it appeared to have no 16-bit support.  I don't
see it shown on AppleLink PE any more, so I guess it's been
withdrawn.  Too bad I spent funds downloading this garbage.

Of course all AppleLink PE users know how bad the menu
operation is.  MouseTalk gets it right; why not AppleLink?

Just now, I saw that ACU (AppleLink Conversion Utility) had been
made available.  Again, I read and followed the instructions, then
downloaded a couple of ACU-uploaded files to try it out.  Would
you believe that ACU.SYS16, no matter how run (including setting up
path prefix from within AppleLink then running ACU from the
AppleLink menu), starts off by looking (somewhere!) for "ACU files
on a disk".  It probes all my drives.  Why the hell the prefix is
ignored I don't know.  Anyway, I did put the supposedly ACU files
on a 3.5" disk as well as the root of my hard disk and tried again.
ACU behaved exactly the same.  I never did get it to even
acknowledge the existence of the ACU files.  Nor did I ever see
the PACK or UNPACK menu items mentioned in the documentation.

Having given up on ACU, I thought I'd try BLU.  Turns out the
downloaded files weren't even in Binary II format!  Another
total waste of funds downloading this stuff.

I don't know who is responsible for the AppleLink PE software,
but they have so far done an ATROCIOUS design job.  I don't
think I can afford to lose any more money on it.  I would have
to recommend not wasting your money on this product/"service".
Buy MouseTalk or some other reputable telecommunications
package instead, and get the further advantage that you'll be
able to use it with almost every bulletin board system and
commercial timesharing service EXCEPT AppleLink.