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From: ephraim@think.COM (Ephraim Vishniac)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: low-budget spreadsheet - summary of responses
Message-ID: <37120@think.UUCP>
Date: 7 Mar 89 16:41:01 GMT
Sender: news@think.UUCP
Reply-To: ephraim@think.COM (Ephraim Vishniac)
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Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
Lines: 38


Yesterday, I asked about cheap spreadsheets to replace Multiplan.  The
returns are already in.

Everyone who'd heard of MacCalc ($79 at MacConnection) said it's a
better spreadsheet than Multiplan was.  For a full review, one
respondent directed me to the April 1989 MacUser (now on your
newstand) for a comparative review of half a dozen commercial
spreadsheets.

Two left-coasters pointed out that there's a shareware spreadsheet
comparable to MultiPlan.  BiPlane comes as both an application and a
DA, has many of the same functions as Multiplan and reads SYLK files.
The shareware terms allow a 30-day free trial, then it's $40.  (You
can, of course, pay up sooner if you want to get the complete manual.
The documentation supplied is very sparse.)  BiPlane is available on
disks from both BCS and BMUG or by downloading from Compu$erve and
GEnie.  One of my officemates has the complete BCS disks, so I had a
copy instantly available.

To salvage my Multiplan files, I booted with the oldest system I could
find (system 3.2, finder 5.3, conveniently located on my original
Multiplan disk) and saved my spreadsheets in SYLK format.  BiPlane
read them without sneezing.  Some formatting information was lost, but
the data and formulas seem to be OK.

I also did some investigation into what's wrong with Multiplan.  I
think the problem is that it's bashing low memory, specifically the
notorious $02B6.  Alas, the popular patch ($02B6 -> $0A78) can't be
used because the ApplScratch area at $0A78 is already used.  So far as
I can see, all twenty bytes of ApplScratch are used.  This leaves
Multiplan needing a low-memory long somewhere.  Any ideas, hackers?

Ephraim Vishniac  /  Internet: ephraim@think.com  / AppleLink: ThinkingCorp
Thinking Machines Corporation / 245 First Street / Cambridge, MA 02142-1214

	"Arlo Guthrie, it seems, has found what he was looking for:
		God, and the Macintosh." (Boston Globe)