Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!claris!drc
From: drc@claris.com (Dennis Cohen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Software Authors please note.
Message-ID: <10884@claris.com>
Date: 17 Feb 90 14:54:20 GMT
References: <7257@ll1a.att.com> <10883@claris.com> <6515@arisia.Xerox.COM>
Organization: Claris Corporation, Santa Clara CA
Lines: 44

ebert@arisia.Xerox.COM (Robert Ebert) writes:
>Of course Mike agrees, he works for Claris, who makes MacWrite and
>MacPaint.  Apple stopped distributing MacWrite and MacPaint with new
>Macintoshes a couple of years ago.  I've owned a Mac II and an SE/30
>and I *still* don't own MacWrite.  (I use Word)  If there is to be a
>standard for documentation, please, PLEASE let it be TeachText, which
>is distributed (free) by Apple and hence guaranteed to be owned by
>everyone.  If you can't do that, standardize on plain text.  I think
>everyone owns at least one DA or editor that can handle text files.

>Hypercard stacks are fine too, since everyone gets Hypercard now.
>Of course, I really hate Hypercard documentation since it always
>takes me a while to figure out the how the documentation writer
>intended HyperCard to be used.  (Sure, Apple, promise us consistency
>and then give us the greatest inconsistency-generating tool since
>computers were invented!)  Anyway, flame off.

The first correction that I would like to make to the above is that Claris
no longer makes or sells MacWrite, we make and sell MacWrite II which is
a completely different package from the ground (file-format) up.  The
point about MacWrite format is that every word-processor for the Mac
reads that format and it has been the "lingua franca" for documentation
on the Mac from the beginning.

TeachText will not work for people who are still running System 3.2 (you
know, those folks with 512K old-ROM machines or with 512Ke machines that
want to have enough RAM left to run an application)  the original MacWrite
format fulfills that need.

Hypercard is well and good for the people with Pluses and better as well,
but I personally don't keep it on any of my Systems because it takes up a
lot of disk space and I don't use it (unless I need it to read a documentation
stack that someone gives me).

Plain text is fine, if graphics aren't needed; but there is no lower-common-
denominator for mixed text/graphic documentation than the original MacWrite
format.


Dennis Cohen
Claris Corp.   drc@claris.com
 ****************************************************
Disclaimer:  Any opinions expressed above are _MINE_!
 ****************************************************