Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!think!ephraim From: ephraim@think.COM (Ephraim Vishniac) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: low-budget spreadsheet - summary of responses Message-ID: <37578@think.UUCP> Date: 16 Mar 89 19:22:37 GMT References: <37120@think.UUCP> <11010050@hpfcdc.HP.COM> Sender: news@think.UUCP Reply-To: ephraim@think.com (Ephraim Vishniac) Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA Lines: 49 In article davidl@intelob.intel.com (David Levine) writes: >Quote without comment: >"According to Chris Espinoza, advanced technology marketing manager, >five-year old Macintosh applications software not only still operates >on the newest Mac system, but also takes advantage of its enhanced >memory, 68030 processor and large-screen displays. The Macintosh >software automatically adjusts applications to the new enchanced Mac >II environment. >"As a demonstration, Espinoza took his own copy of Microsoft MultiPlan >(purchased in spring 1984) and slid it into the new IIcx. The >spreadsheet opened to the full megapixel limit of the attached Mac >page display and allowed full spreadsheet access to the Mac IIcx's 4 >Mbytes of system RAM. Well, here are *my* comments. I don't believe this for several reasons. 1. The version of Multiplan distributed in 1984 was copy- protected. I'd be amazed if the copy-protection scheme still worked. 2. As part of the copy-protection, Multiplan would eject the startup volume (if it wasn't the key), then ask for the key disk in the interal floppy drive. The stupidity of this became evident when you ran Multiplan from your hard disk or ramdisk. 3. If you call MS Tech Support on the telephone and ask them about compatibility, they will tell you that Multiplan works under System 4.1 and earlier. Not 6.0.2. 4. When I start Multiplan 1.11 on my Mac II by double- clicking a document, I get a bomb 01. If I open the application first, then the document, I can't enter certain formulas without getting a bomb. But I'm open-minded. When I get home tonight, I'll go through my files and find my oldest Multiplan key disk (circa January 1985). Maybe it works better than the "current" version. Or maybe the demo was rigged... 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)