Conference hydra::amiga_v1

2399.0. "Platinum Works!" by MTWAIN::MACDONALD (WA1OMM 7.093/145.05/223.58 AX.25) Fri Mar 24 1989 18:37

    I just received a copy of Platinum Works! by MSS. I have mixed
    reactions after using it for a few days and thought I'd share some
    of those comments with you.
    
    First, the documentation is outstanding ... a really well executed
    manual that is easy to follow and yes, it has an excellent index.
    The manual is about 500 pages in a nice slipcase binder.

    The package is "fully integrated" which means you can cut data from
    one application and paste it into another using the clipboard. The
    applications are also able to run simultaneously, but only on a
    memory laden system. 512K will barely support two applications.
    I have noticed that while running the Telcomm program that loading
    the word processor can take 6 times longer to load than when loading
    the word processor by itself without any other overhead (and that's
    on a 68020 with 32-bit memory!). That seemed unreasonable, but MSS
    has always experienced that time of performance degredation on its
    products.
    
    The Telcomm package is basically a much improved OnLine! and the
    Word Processing package is a much improved Scribble!. The interfaces
    are pretty similar. There is a Thesaurus and Dictionary built-in
    and some other goodies like a sideways printing utility, dbMerge
    utility for importing data from othert databases. I haven't used
    the Spreadsheet ot Database much, but each of those supports some
    nice colorful graphics charting capabilities. If you have a color
    printer, you can have some fun.
    
    The VT102 emulation appears to be complete. I ran it through its
    paces and came out of it without any problems (unlike its OnLine!
    predecessor). There is script support and macro support of course.
    
    You can probably pick this package up for around $175 mailorder.
    I would say it's a pretty good deal considering all that it gives
    you. I haven't run into any bugs yet. They apparently did a good
    job beta testing this one!

    Does the terminal emulator handle ISO Latin-1 (the Amiga native
    character set, supported by the DEC VT300 series)?  Does the word
    processor let you import IFF graphics?  Can you specify the shape
    of a paragraph, so as to write around the graphic?  What about
    two-column support?  Whose spelling corrector do they use?
        John Sauter

    The word processor and telecomm programs are basically bug-free
    versions of Scribble! and OnLine!. So the answers are
    
    NO
    NO
    NO
    NO
    Proximity/Merriam-Webster Linguibase and Thesaurus