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From: steveg@SAIC.COM (Stephen Harold Goldstein)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: PageStream 1.8 Bug (?)
Message-ID: <9001092309.AA02621@CASPIAN.SAIC.COM>
Date: 9 Jan 90 23:09:57 GMT
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 43


Well so far I've encountered several problems with the 'debugged' version of
PageStream (1.8).  Some are bugs, others are annoyances.  The first was
relayed previously and has to with outline text appearing see thru when
placed on top of other objects.  Fill styles only fill the area AROUND the
text not the letters themselves.  In trying to create a deep shadow effect,
you can overlay several copies of your text offset about 0.01" over and down
(up and over etc), from each other, then place an outline copy on top.  The
resultant output on my SLM804 is quite pleasing, but the screen display is a
mess.

The 'UNDO' feature still does not work in all cases.  As a bare minimum, you
should be warned before the program executes something that cannot be
'undone'.

Inconsistent defaults on entering font/size selection form.  Sometimes it
defaults to the font of your selected block, others to the first font
available.

Real annoying habit of ALWAYS asking whether a font/size change should be
global or block only - why not a little checkbox in the font/size dialog that
you can toggle as needed?

The screen is still not properly redrawn after moving some objects - object
'handles' get left on the screen, objects can be rotated/stretched so they
seem to disappear etc.

Finally, I've recently had a problem printing Postscript to disk.  If I
create a file from scratch all works fine.  However, upon re-entering the
program and opening the saved document, an attempt to print to disk triggers
repeated screen dumps to the laser!  I've got a number of AUTO folder pgms
and ACCs loaded, and a lot of fonts, and haven't tried to duplicate this yet
with a 'clean' system, but it's still quite strange.  If the screen dump AUTO
program is not loaded, the system just hangs.  Anyone out there have similar
problems to what I've described?  Any guesses as to when the *real* debugged
version will be out? :^)

Sure glad I didn't jump in until v1.52 was out.  I shudder to think what 1.0
was like.  Don't take me wrong, once you know how to navigate around the
traps its a very useful and powerful package, but it drives me crazy whenever
I run into software whose annoyance factor is just barely outweighed by its
utility factor.  That is to say, all things considered, it's an OK program,
but with the potential to be a *great* program.