Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!elbereth.rutgers.edu!joseph From: joseph@elbereth.rutgers.edu (Seymour Joseph) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: GS/OS Compatability issues Keywords: We aren't there yet Message-ID: Date: 3 Mar 89 00:18:33 GMT Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 91 I coordinate an apple II users group in NJ and have owned a series of Apple II computers since 1978. I purchased my IIGS in October 1988 right after the announcement of GS/OS and the darn price increase :-(. My current system has 1.25 meg of ram, a Sider 10 MB hard disk (ported over from my old //e) and some other random boards (supersonic...). I have been hearing lately that Apple //GS software is not selling as well as it should. I have been buying (and lately returning) a great deal of it and I think I know some of the reasons. I waited until after the announcement of GS/OS to by my machine because I felt the earlier proDOS 16 versions were simply too crude. Below is a list of some of the products I have purchased since I bought my GS. NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM works properly when launched from GS/OS. In addition, the publishers have been unwilling to comment on proposed dates for updates that fix their compatability problems. From Activision: Draw Plus (has printing problems) Paintworks Plus (freaks out) Paintworks Gold (won't launch) Writer's Choice Elite (unstable) Music Studio 2.0 (unstable) From Claris: Multiscribe GS (Dictionary and Thesaurus don't work) From Spectrum Holobyte Tetris (won't quit back to GS/OS finder.) What gives? These are major developers, not yahoos. They were seeded with GS/OS way before its release and today, almost six months after the public introduction and shipping of the Apple //GS operating system, I have been unable to find a single personal productivity product that works correctly with it. This week I am returning Multiscribe GS. I like the product design a lot. I used all the earlier versions of Multiscribe on my //e (they worked correctly with the OS for the //e), but I am unwilling to pay Claris for a product that makes me go back to booting from a floppy every time I wish to run it. This is not the kind of performance I bought a GS for. (and this is not the kind of lack of support I expected from Claris either!) I must give them credit for offering to refund my money. These products are still on dealer shelves, being sold today with no notice on the package or documentation to inform the user that they won't run with GS/OS. Why? Apple //GS software isn't selling very well because the software environment is in a state of violent flux and developers are not keeping up. Often the products you buy are incompatible with the operating system, common hardware add-ons or each other. Example: I share an AppleTalk Imagewriter II with my wife's Mac. This is not unusual and it is a supported configuration. Activision's Music Studio 2.0 will simply crash if booted while AppleTalk is enabled from the control panel. No warnings, no mention in the manual, just a 45 second boot that ends with the old familiar and leaves you looking at a blank screen. Therefore, every time I run this program, I have to remember to turn AppleTalk off and of course, I can't print from Music Studio. AppleLink Personal Edition comes with a long list of control panel settings that must be made in order to run it on a GS. These include changing the PRINTER settings (I asked both Apple and Quantum why I have to change the printer settings and neither has been able to supply an adequate answer). Included in the required printer changes is turning all handshaking with the printer OFF. If you leave applelink PE and run an old ProDOS 8 application to print something the printer will screw up because the settings are wrong for anything else BUT AppleLink PE. Conclusion: Well written Apple //GS software should never ASSUME that the control panel is set a certain way. It should check the settings and warn a user if they are inappropriate. Well written Apple //GS software should NEVER require the user to make a control panel change to run it. If it needs a change to run properly, it should ask the user permission to make the change, do it and then restore the original settings before quitting. In cases where the machine must be restarted to make the change, the program should store the original settings, make the changes, instruct the user to resetart, run, and upon quitting, restore the original settings, and inform the user that the machine must be restarted again to have them take effect. This is all very grungy. A really well designed program shouldn't have to diddle the control panel at all. Comments? Questions? Answers? Seymour Joseph (joseph@elbereth.rutgers.edu) Coordinator ACGNJ Apple II users Group Micro Facilities Manager, Rutgers University