Re: xyGeos???

[OkAnnie@xxxxxxxx]

"all they need is Ensemble [...] just think of having an
integrated spreadsheet/database/wp/draw/comm/fax/whatever else
with XY at its heart."

Ensemble is the little gui that time forgot. It failed on the
80x86 platform because both releases were years behind the curve.
Now no work has been done on Ensemble for nearly three years. It
would take a *massive* amount of programming effort (=$) to bring
it up to speed. GeoWrite doesn't do footnotes, GeoDraw doesn't do
vector graphics. The data base and spreadsheet are buggy de facto
betas unusable for anything more serious than cataloging your
CDs. By all reckonings, GEOS 2 comm abilities are the pits. GEOS
3 supposedly corrects that. If upgrading Ensemble to 3 were
trivial, GW would do it. GW is not doing it. As I mentioned in
the context of how difficult
GEOS is to program, three years into intense PDA development
Geoworks *still* hasn't been able to devise a GEOS fax module.
Ensemble has an excellent spooling scheme--luckily, because
compared to win3 it creates huge print files that take
foreeeeeeeeeever to print, which I believe explains the absence
of a fax module--the result, I suspect, of something too crucial
to the GEOS architecture to correct. Print driver quality
actually deteriorated between v1 and v2 (I smailed Brian
Dougherty samples to prove it; he never answered ). PostScript
hurdles are daunting and, absent ATM, expensive (if
I could't program PS I wouldn't use Ensemble). The only user
programming language is an independent developer's evolving $60
add-on. A xyGeos module?
GEOS's promise attracted Borland, but QuattroPro was only
partially integrated in GeoPro 1.6, which wasn't upgraded to 2.
The only integrated power third-party module was GAO--GEOS
America Online, also available as runtime GAO (the interface I
use: 9600 top speed, no www, no flashmail). AO soared only after
it dumped GAO for winAO (which I use to dl at 14.4). GEOS
multithreads its own modules but--most important of all--aside
from impex, interconnectivity with popular software is zero. ...
TTG *needs* this tsouris?

"whoever DPI is (that is marketing it now) can't be too flush,
they don't have a commercial account, just aol ..."

Ensemble "exclusive republisher" DPI Services (approximately 120
technical, marketing and support personnel responsible since
March for Ensemble manufacturing, sales and marketing, and
distribution) is a real mystery entity. An AO link is news to me,
but the San Jose corporation supposedly put
Lotus Notes on the map.

"I'm putting Ensemble on a Compaq Portable III (286-12 w/2meg and
a mathco) and giving it to my 4 year old grandson for Xmas."

Next thing we know, Harmon, you'll have an AO account--it's the
only place where GW sponsors a user forum. I was going to give Ensemble to my
12-year-old niece, but my brother informed me he wants her to use only
Windows software since he is trying to prepare her to make a
living in the real world.

"The more I play with it, the more I like it."

GEOS's elegant Motif implementation makes win3 look like trash,
assembler makes GeoWrite fast, OO makes text/graphics integration
seamless. GeoWrite treats text and graphics tools as equals; the
lone GeoDraw function denied
GeoWrite is bitmap impex. By fooling around with text frames you
can even fake the feature that distinguishes word processors from
dtp, manipulation of multiple text streams. GW shrewdly adopted
the Mac keyboard map and character set, so you can shift among
macQuark, winQuark, and GeoWrite without rewiring
neurotransmitters. Documentation is first-rate except for
ignoring the vital matter of text/graphics layers, but a wealth
of orderly supplementary documentation is available online or by
fax. The make-or-break feature for me, however, is reliable
xyWrite impex. ... Enjoy it, share it--but why wish on TTG the
abundant grief that accompanies Ensemble's undeniable charm?   --A

========================== annie fisher  nyc