🚀 go-pugleaf

> article posted by Alan Day <282@thunder.UUCP> in net.sources.mac

I can confirm Alan Day's report that "beta-test" versions up to and including
1.05 were totally useless for work.  What Icon Technology should have made
clear was that they weren't so much beta- as alpha- versions, and I don't
think that they should have charged for it at that time (or at least they
could have heavily discounted it in return for feedback). I only
received what I considered to be beta-test versions (ie useable with some
bugs) in April 86.  The product was finally shipped at the beginning of May 86.
I feel that it's been worth the wait, though I'm unhappy about the
way Icon Technology led me to believe that it was "almost ready" a year ago.

Here is a quick list of the features of and problems with the product that I
received on the 9th May (marked Version 1.00) - the list is not exhaustive.

Price: 200 pounds sterling (list)
From:  Icon Technology Ltd
       9 Jarrom Street
       Leicester LE2 7DH
       UK
       +44 533 556268

What it is:
       A cross between a wp and a page-layout program.  It is not in the same
       class as PageMaker for the latter job, but it is good enough for
       multi-column layouts for conference papers and the like.

Features:
       Style-sheets with style-editor so that you can define your own para,
            heading and text styles (fonts and sizes) and (optionally) bind
            them to a cmd-key.

       You can save a document's format as a "stationery pad".

       Regular expression patterns in searches.

       "Frames" (text or graphics) can be placed anywhere on the page (similar
            to Ready-Set-Go).  Frames can either be fixed on the page or
            attached to paragraphs and float with them. You can have frames
            within frames.  Text frames can (optionally) generate continuation
            frames automatically when you fill them up.

       Graphics and text side by side is possible (using frames).

       When pasting in graphics, you have a choice of scaling or clipping to
            fit. If you select the latter, the clipped portions aren't lost -
            you include them by expanding the frame at any time (even after
            closing and re-opening the document).

       Headers and footers appear on screen.  A nice touch is that it picks up
            the date and time format from the INTL resources (offers you short
            or long form).

       7 levels of sub-/super-scripting.

       You have control of kerning for special effects eg a "T" that overhangs
            the next character.

       You can overtype, and thus, build up symbols such as "hat y" (y with a
            circumflex above it).

       You can control the line spacing (in points).

       Offers background printing if you have enough memory (see below).

       Designed to work with Switcher (and hopefully Servant).

       Supports Mac+ font mgr with fractional spacing.

       They claim it works with HFS (? - still waiting for my Plus u/g :-( )

       Can open up to 4 documents.

Problems:
       Copy-protected (key disk) - they say they will review this if many
            people complain.  I don't have enough RAM to run MacA with
            other applications (in Switcher), so pasting in stuff from
            elsewhere is extremely painful. However, it does allow you to
            install up to 3 copies on a hard-disk, and you can deinstall it
            (bumps up the no of installations again) if you need to remove
            it from the HD.

       Still buggy - I've had problems laying out B5 (notepaper size)
            on the LW (but this may be the LW driver/prep file);
            header/footer displays sometimes get screwed up; mouse
            freeze-ups occasionally.  If it bombs (latest version is now
            pretty stable), it gives you a chance to save the document.

       Big - Switcher partition is 325K (!), and you need at least 256K free
            before it offers you background printing.

       Can't read MacW or WORD files directly - you have to save as TEXT
            first, then read it into MacA.  Clipboard is supported of
            course. Nice touch is when you read in a TEXT file, you select
            a "stationery pad" so that the file is reformated as it is read
            in.

       Editing one of the styles will cause the ENTIRE document to be
            reformated. This can take a while, so it's best to plan ahead
            and define all your styles before entering any text.

       Screen refresh is somewhat slow.  To speed things up, it
            doesn't re-format the paragraph until there is a pause in the
            typing.

       You can't have more than 1 header or footer in a document. However, it
            has the notion of "title pages" which can be used to change the
            format of the page number (say to Roman numerals for preface
            material).  Also you can attach a prefix or suffix to the page
            no, so you can achieve the effect of changing chapter/section
            nos in the header/footer.

       No auto footnote numbering (footnotes are done by making a frame at the
            bottom of the page).

       No mail merge.

       It cries out for a macro facility like the the one in MEdit.

Comments:

       I like it a lot - enough to put up with all the bombs in earlier
       versions. It also has a lot of scope for add-on packages e.g.
       because it differentiates between headings and paragraphs, I think
       it should be possible (maybe even simple) to write a Table of
       Contents generator.

       It's still fragile though, so my advice is try before you buy, and
       see if you are prepared to put up with the bugs for what it gives you.
       They seem to be responsive to complaints and bug reports (at least
       from me).

       Alan Day points out that you would need to define 2**5 entries per
       font in the "Text Style" menu if you wanted to get at all possible
       combinations of type styles. I don't think that this is a problem in
       practice for 2 reasons. First, you wouldn't want to change styles
       all over the place.  Second, each heading or paragraph type has its
       own default text style, so that you don't need to access the "text
       styles" menu all that much. In case it's not clear, you can for
       example define "Chapter headings" to be bold, 14-pt Times Roman,
       centred etc, "section headings" to be italic 12-pt etc, so that each
       time you start a chapter or a section, the right font,size and style
       is selected for you. (In MacW you'd have to access the
       font, style, and size menus several times to do the same thing.)

Disclaimer:
       I have been beta-testing the product for them, and I get to keep a
       copy in return, but I do not get any money from the sales
       of this product.
-- 
Sak Wathanasin, U of Sussex, Cognitive Studies, Falmer, Sussex BN1 9QN, UK
uucp:  ...mcvax!ukc!cvaxa!sakw
arpa:  sakw%cvaxa.sussex.ac.uk@ucl.cs.ac.uk
janet: sakw@uk.ac.sussex.cvaxa