From: Martin B. Hill <chillm@cc.curtin.edu.au>
Subject: Re: Need Information about Spinnaker PLUS for Mac
Organization: Curtin Uni Computing Centre
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.0
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 13:41:11 GMT

G'day,
I asked the same question a little while ago and received only a few
replies.
We recently received Spinnaker Plus for the Mac and the PC ourselves and
have been evaluating them.  
Approx. costs in Australian dollars below:

-Plus Mac version: A$695 educational price
-Plus Windows version: A$695 educational price
-Plus OS/2 version: A$695 educational price

NOTE: US prices were around US$500 RRP.

>    1. Has anybody out there used PLUS?  Do you like it?  What are its
>       major advantages or disadvantages?

Plus on the Mac is better than Hypercard in several ways. 
- Colour bitmap and colour object-oriented graphics.
- Three types of fields: Text, Word Processing and Database Fields  
  which adds Database level text formatting, sorting and searching 
  capabilities.
- Plus's builtin scripting language PPL is a compatible superset of 
  HyperTalk, with more capabilities.
- Plus also handles add-on modules, "Software Slot Architecture" that 
  allows the creation of extra capabilities.  There is a free Spread- 
  sheet slot object available as a for instance.

However, Plus is nowhere as powerful as Aldus Supercard, the latter of
which has amongst other things, much better drawing, painting and button
capabilities, although it doesn't have database field functionality
built-in, or multi-platform support.  

>
>    2. Can PLUS really translate and run HyperCard stacks easily?
>

Yes, it's very straight forward.  However, we have had some problems with
a few scripts.  It's also a bit buggy under Windows.
Version 2.1 of Plus only converts Hypercard 1.2.x stacks.

>    3. Just how effective is PLUS at running stacks on a PC that were
>       developed on a Mac?

It works, but it is slowwwwwww.  Even on a 486 it is noticablely
sluggish.  Working only in black and white improves matters considerably.
 It also seemed to be somewhat buggy.  However, all interactive
multimedia software packages that we've tried under Windows 3.0,
including Authorware, are considerably slower than such programs on the
Mac.  It's the Windows-over-the-top-of-DOS factor.  

>    4. Is there a compiler available for PLUS?  We need to send the
>       final application out to more than 150 sites, and we can't buy
>       each one a copy of PLUS.  (This isn't a problem with HyperCard
>       which comes bundled with the Mac.)

There is no compiler available.  However there is a Run-Time Distribution
Kit available:

-Unlimited license, royalty free Run-time version of Plus: 
    A$695 educational price

In contrast both Supercard and Authorware can create standalone
double-clickable applications.

I don't know whether Heizer's CompileIt! program, which works with
Supercard as well as Hypercard, would work with Plus.  It probably would.
 We're getting CompileIt! v2.0 shortly, so we'll soon find out.



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Martin Hill            Internet:  chillm@cc.curtin.edu.au
Multimedia Consultant  QuickMail: Martin_Hill@3512673
Computing Centre       AppleLink: AUST0176
Curtin University      GPO Box U 1987, 
Ph:(09)351-7461        Perth 6001,
Fax:(09)351-2673       Western Austalia
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