Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!batcomputer!riley
From: riley@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Daniel S. Riley)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Thinker and HyperText for Amiga
Keywords: hypertext thinker
Message-ID: <7634@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Date: 29 Mar 89 13:43:00 GMT
References: <672@wsu-cs.uucp>
Reply-To: riley@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu (Daniel S. Riley)
Distribution: na
Organization: Cornell Theory Center, Cornell University, Ithaca NY
Lines: 85


In article <672@wsu-cs.uucp> jal@wsu-cs.uucp (Jason Leigh) writes:
>Some time ago I posted a message asking about Thinker, a HyperText
>system for the Amiga, and I know a few of you wanted the same info so
>here's what I found out.

>This is from a pamphlet I received from Poor Person Software who is
>selling this program:

I found a demo version of Thinker on the Lattice bulletin board.  All
my comments here are based on that demo.

>Thinker combines Hypertext, Hierarchical text, and Word Processing into
>an Idea Processor for creative people.

I think including "Word Processing" here is reaching a bit.  Thinker (or
at least the demo) has no support for alternate fonts, different styles,
or any sort of control over page formatting.  As an idea processor it
seems to work fairly well, but it is not a full document preparation
system or even a word processor by any stretch of the imagination.

>The pamphlet shows a diagram of what the system looks like.  And
>basically the screen looks like a mini-wordprocessor with commands like
>Insert, Copy, Delete, Move etc...

The user interface has some nice features--especially the heavy use of
requesters as pop-up menus.  Unfortunately, it has the TextCraft 
disease--you select an operation first, and then select the region it acts 
on.  This really drove me up the wall.

>The hypertext links are specified by enclosing < > symbols and sections
>are begun with a label delimited by ( ).

Yup.  There is no support for otherwise highlighting links, like different
fonts, styles, gadgets, etc.  And, since the link is by keyword, every
instance of a keyword within a document links you to the same label.

>Access to sections is done by double clicking on a word, and sections 
>may expand out to be graphical in nature or may invoke some kind of
>tool or program.

>The system imports ASCII text files and writes out ASCII.  They do not
>mention if there is any way to combine the text and graphics into a
>complete document; I suspect not since the pamphlet was done on a
>Macintosh with MacDraw and printed on a LaserWriter (there are
>tell-tale signs).

There is no way to combine text and graphics.  Graphics always appear in a
separate window or screen, and there is no support for making regions of
a graphics window link to something else.

>In general the system looks pretty simple.  It supports hypertext links
>but the pamphlet does not mention any kind of browser that goes with
>the system although it does mention that the depth of the hierarchy
>that is visible can be controlled by the Clipping level.

The clipping level and outlining stuff are reasonably well done, and
probably Thinker's strongest point.  Think of it as an idea processor
with HyperText, not vice versa.  On the other hand, the text editing is
not very strong, and linear navigation of a document is a real pain--there's
no scroll bar, no next page command.  If a section is longer than the
current window, it's a real pain to scroll through it, since most of
the movement commands are section oriented.

>If anyone knows anything more about this product please let me know
>because as it is, the system doesn't look like one that is worth
>investing in.  I have a similar system I wrote on the Sun that does
>pretty much the same thing except it's compatible with X, Sunview, and
>UW.

At one point, I thought Thinker might be worth the $59.  After playing
with the demo some more, I got annoyed enough with user interface to think
some more.  My conclusion was that it doesn't provide any functionality
that I couldn't reproduce in a reasonable amount of time.  So I'm waiting
for something better, or some free time to write my own.

>Disclaimer: I don't have any affiliation with Poor Person Software.
>This was an unsolicited review and is solely based on the content
>presented in the pamphlet sent to me by Poor Person Software and in no
>way reflects the true quality or content of the actual product.

What he said.  I haven't seen the real thing, just a demo.

-Dan Riley (riley@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu, cornell!batcomputer!riley)
-Wilson Lab, Cornell U.