HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: tlm@nextasy.physics.mcmaster.ca (Tom Marchioro)
Subject: Re: Review requested: EqB vs. Framemath
Organization: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1992 16:19:56 GMT

anwar+@cs.cmu.edu (Anwar Mohammed) writes:
: 
: I have absolutely no doubt that Equation Builder would be better.  However,
: I'd like to see a review posted.  Anyone?
: 
I'd like to see this as well  It's not so clear to me that EqB is better
than Frame unless you use EqB in conjunction with TeX (that is, for making
technical journal quality publications). EqB still has major problems with
"in line" math for reasons Phil McDunnough has  recently discussed
(this may be fixed someday, but it depends on the developers of the word
processing software).  Simple in-line math can be done using the basic
aspects of the Symbol font and, say, the elementary features in WriteNow,
but something so basic as a varaible with both a superscript and a subscript
is out.

My experiences with Frame are not significant enough to make an 
intelligent comparison, but after playing with the Demo for a few days
when I first got my NeXT, I'd say (loosely) that the front end isn't
nearly as friendly as EqB (and is downright perverse at times) and it
doesn't (to my memory) interface as easily with other applications the 
way EqB does.


There may be a **third** alternative to consider here as well.  There is a
new program called Scientific Word which runs on  PC's. It's basically a 
WYSIWYG front end to LaTeX.  A coworker runs it on a  486 notebook and we've
been extremely pleased with it.  He has this paranoia about TeX, but is
comfortable with SW, but we can still exchange documents because I just
process them under LaTeX, make changes, and give it back to him (the only
problem being stripping and then restoring the #$%*&%^*%^#$@  ^Ms which
DOS uses:-)  It seems possible that this would run on the NeXT under 
SoftPC.  I'll try to find the time to test this out in the next day or
so and will report back.  

SWord comes with's own version of LaTeX for the PC, which is "okay" but
not great.  On the NeXT you could just use it as a front end for the (1)
free and (2) fantastic NeXT LaTeX.  Will try it out soon!

Tom
From: deepthought!neil@ms.uky.edu (Neil Greene)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
Subject: Re: WordPerfect Development Continues
Date: 18 Aug 92 17:32:15 GMT
Reply-To: Neil Greene <deepthought!neil@ms.uky.edu>
Organization: ARCI, Inc.

In article <1992Aug18.153911.4652@cgrg.ohio-state.edu>  
randyj@outback.sbs.ohio-state.edu (Randy Jackson) writes:
> 
> At the urging of others on the net, I have just spoken with
> Brent McKinley, product marketing director for the
> unix division of WordPerfect.  He stated that the
> decision has been made to continue the development of WP
> for the NeXT.  He added that the next WP product will be "next
> generation," and not a current version upgrade.
> 
> He also suggested that interested parties might contact
> Gordon Mella (product manager) at 801-228-7284 for
> additional information, although there really won't be
> much additional info for a month or two.

I certainly hope WP or some other word processing application for the NeXT will  
support STYLES and DESCRIPTIONS like those found in Ami Pro for Windows. 

For those of you that have not used Ami, when saving a file a use may enter a  
short description.  When opening files, the user may also select to quickly  
view these descriptions as filenames are selected, displaying the files  
description.  Very usefull when you have memo1, memo2; boss1, boss2, ...,  
bossn, etc.

Does anyone know if this may or may not be supported.  What about Appsoft's  
Writenow?

-- 
Neil Greene 
Director, Computer Information Systems ARCI, Inc.
President, Kentucky NeXT User Group, Inc.
Email: deepthought!neil@ms.uky.edu [NeXTmail]
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
Subject: Re: Free Appsoft Draw
From: frank@ifi.unibas.ch (Robert Frank)
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 08:35:54 GMT
Reply-To: frank@ifi.unibas.ch
Organization: Institut fuer Informatik

In article <hketola.714261843@uclagsm>  writes:
> pseymour@appsoft.com (Peter Seymour) writes:
> 
> >In article <hketola.714109114@uclagsm> hketola@agsm.ucla.edu (Heikki Ketola)  
> >writes:
> >> When can we expect a working version of Draw that supports even  
approximately 
> >> proper kerning of foreign characters? 
> 
> >You should now have it.  It was emailed to you this morning.  We will be  
> >sending an update to all registered users within the next week.
> 
> >Thanks for your patience.
> 
> >Peter Seymour
> >pseymour@appsoft.com
> 
> Peter promptly emailed to me a copy of Appsoft Draw version 1.02
> yesterday and a quick & dirty & not very throrough test did not reveal
> any problems with umlaut and foreign characters.  This is great news.
> Now we foreign infidels can start using Draw.
> Thanks, Peter!
> 
> Heikki Ketola
> hketola@sms-usa.com

Lucky you, I'm still waiting (better have it in one week, as promised...) - Got  
some posters to do.

-Robert
--
Robert Frank                         tel. + (061) 321 99 67                 
Institut fuer Informatik             fax  + (061) 321 99 15                 
University of Basel, Switzerland                                            
Mittlere Strasse 142      rfc822: frank@ifi.unibas.ch (NeXT mail accepted)  
CH-4056 Basel          X400: S=frank;OU=ifi;O=unibas;P=switch;A=arcom;C=ch
                   ( if all fails try frank@urz.unibas.ch )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
From: shanega@athena.mit.edu (Shane G. Artis)
Subject: Re:  Solid Value, Rulers, and Copy Protection (long)
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 15:26:28 GMT

In article <1992Aug12.015856.13142@fsg.com> chuck@fsg.com (Chuck Yerkes) writes:
>
>Having followed this thread for a while, I must comment on some things.
>I'm going to extrapolate a bit to all computer systems instead of just next.
>
>    I find that an application for Unix costs a great amount more than
>a functionally similiar application on the PC or the Mac (single
>tasking machines).  I have found accounting software for unix that
>costs $1500 that isn't much better than $600 software on the PC/Mac.  I
>have found, though that NeXT software is much more reasonably priced
>(compared to Unix software) in general.
> [deleted]
>   This often happens in Unix.  It's a more complicated to program in
>than DOS (or at least you can't write the junk code that is found in
>many DOS programs - you have to write programs correctly), but often
>programs are used the same way - 1 user plugging away at it.  This does
>not justify the price differences that one finds in general purpose
>apps (like word processors and simple databases) that one finds.
>

  It is much easier to answer questions like these when you consider
the economics of the situation.  I am a developer with products on the
NeXT and the PC.  The PC products are priced lower than the NeXT
products.  This has nothing to do with personal greed.  It has
everything to do with the size of the market base.  The NeXT will sell
to fewer people, so it needs to be priced higher to recoup its nearly
equal development and support costs.

  Also bear in mind that most people with Unix machines are in
business or education still, and are not individual home users with small
budgets.  Businesses often by in bulk and receive discounts that bring
the software costs much closer to the PC costs.

  Thus, same program, different price, which seems unfair but remains
necessary in general.

Shane

Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software,comp.sys.next.misc
From: hinds@cmgm.Stanford (Alexander Scott Hinds)
Subject: Re: WordPerfect Development Continues
Organization: Stanford University, California, USA
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 04:37:22 GMT

In article <1992Aug19.194749.2430@cgrg.ohio-state.edu>  
randyj@randy.oac.osc.edu (Randy Jackson) writes:
> In article <1992Aug18.230341.28375@morrow.stanford.edu>  
> hinds@cmgm.Stanford (Alexander Scott Hinds) writes:
> 
> .....(.....)
> 
> > 
> > I got burned by them when I purchased Amiga Wordperfect.  I won't make  
> the  
> > same mistake twice.  Naturally, this is just my opinion, not advice.
> > 
> > --X
> 
> Burned?  In what way?  And why transfer an Amiga-based policy to (all) 
> other platforms?  
> 
> I was always happy with WP for DOS, and in spite of some deficiencies,
> I am relatively pleased with WP for NeXT.  I recently purchased 
> EquationBuilder, and find the two products work pretty well together to 
> support my writing needs.
> 
> --
> Randy Jackson
> Ohio State Zooniversity

Burned in what way?  Well, like promises upon promises of updates and  
continuing support, which didn't last all that long.

Perhaps *burned* was too strong a word.  It [Amiga WP] did the job quite  
well for me in college, although it certainly was never up to par with its  
DOS counterpart.  I'm just reluctant to plunk down more cash for a program  
that doesn't work as well as it should from a company who's commitment to  
products seems at time flakey.

Why there still isn't a topflight wp solution for the NeXT confuses the  
hell out of me.  (More like annoys me.)  I actually thinking of buying a  
powerbook to fill some of the void.

--X
From: jeff_blum@next.com (Jeff Blum)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
Subject: Re: Need "Craftman" e-mail address
Keywords: CraftMan Xanthus
Date: 10 Aug 92 19:11:18 GMT
Reply-To: jblum@next.com

In article <0095EE0A.D1092990@VIOLET.CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU>  
citdem@VIOLET.CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU writes:
> I'd like to know the email address of the folks who make Craftman?   
Anyone
> know it?
> 
> Don McCollam  (d_mc%mccube.tucson.az.us@arizona.edu)

Here is contact information for Xanthus (makers of CraftMan):

	Bjorn Backlund
	Jesper Lundh
	craftman@xanthus.se

	Xanthus AB
	Kungstengatan 14, S-113 57 Stockholm, SWEDEN
	Phone: +46 8 612 89 95
	fax:   +46 8 612 89 96

In addition, there is a CraftMan demonstration on sonata.cc.purdue.edu.
It is in the directory

	/pub/next/submissions/CraftManDemo_1.0
as:	-rw-r--r--  1 ftp      4718592 Jun 16 09:42 CraftManDemo.pkg.tar

Hope this helps!

Jeff Blum
Higher Education Technical Assistant
jblum@next.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
From: hinds@cmgm.Stanford (Alexander Scott Hinds)
Subject: Re: WordPerfect Development Continues
Organization: Stanford University, California, USA
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 23:03:41 GMT

In article <1992Aug18.153911.4652@cgrg.ohio-state.edu>  
randyj@outback.sbs.ohio-state.edu (Randy Jackson) writes:
> 
> At the urging of others on the net, I have just spoken with
> Brent McKinley, product marketing director for the
> unix division of WordPerfect.  He stated that the
> decision has been made to continue the development of WP
> for the NeXT.  He added that the next WP product will be "next
> generation," and not a current version upgrade.
> ____________________________________________________________________
> |  Randy Jackson, Assoc. Prof.|  internet address: jackson+@osu.edu|
> |  Geography, OSU             |  Assoc. Dir. of Research Computing |
> |  103 Bricker ,190 No. Oval  |  Office of Academic Computing, OSU |       
> |  Columbus, Ohio 43210-1361  |  1224 Kinnear Rd.,  Suite 130      |                          
> |  614 292-7998, 292-6553     |  Columbus, Ohio,43212-1154         |

This is, of course, welcome news.  Unfortunately, even though I understand  
the sometimes harsh realities of the software market, I find it difficult  
to chance spending $$$ on a product from a company with policies like  
WordPerfect Corp.

I got burned by them when I purchased Amiga Wordperfect.  I won't make the  
same mistake twice.  Naturally, this is just my opinion, not advice.

--X
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
From: buc@leland.stanford.edu (Robert Richards)
Subject: Is the an equivalent command to System V "ct" command?
Organization: Stanford University
Distribution: na
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 92 22:03:47 GMT

I can't find a command that does the function of "ct" under system V.

I would like to have the NeXT call another computer via modem and then
have the NeXT act like it was being logged into.  That is, after the
remote terminal picked up the call, the NeXT would put up a login
prompt so the remote terminal could be used to talk to the NeXT.

Any clues?

	Thanks,

 Cray Y-MP**ETA 10-E**Cray X-MP**NEC SX-2**Hitachi S-820/80**Cray 2S**NAS AS/XL
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rob Richards			 Internet: buc@jessica.Stanford.Edu
Mechanical Engineering Dept.     Bitnet:   buc%jessica.Stanford.Edu@Stanford
Stanford University           	 FAX:      (415) 725-8240
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Fujitsu VP-400**Amdahl 1400**E & S - 1**Ardent Titan**IBM 3090**Siemens H120F
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
From: sears@tree.egr.uh.edu (Paul S. Sears)
Subject: Re: Details on Dataphile
Reply-To: sears@tree.egr.uh.edu
Organization: University of Houston
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 18:30:04 GMT

In article <Bt7sz9.AHK@research.canon.oz.au> philip@research.canon.oz.au  
(Philip Craig) writes:
=>Hi,
=>
=>I have heard of a product called Dataphile, which (surprise!) seems to be
=>some sort of database. I'm wondering
=>
=>a) Who makes it, and what their contact details are (no 800 numbers please).
=>

Stone Design
info@stone.com  for details.

=>b) What people's experiences / perceptions of it are.
=>

DataPhile is an excellent flat file database.  It is extremely flexible and  
has exceptional report generation facilities.  The only thing that I found  
that it lacks is a command line import feature for batch imports (Stone said  
this would likely be in the next release).

It is definitely a worthwhile product and Stone Design puts exceptional  
quality in their products.  They also work hard to solve any problems that you  
may ever have....

=>Thanks in advance,

Sure.
=>-- 
=>   _/_/_/  _/  _/  _/  _/      _/  _/_/_/ _p_h_i_l_i_p_@_r_e_s_e_ 
a_r_c_h_._c_a_n_o_n_._o_z_._a_u   _--_|\
=>  _/  _/  _/  _/  _/  _/      _/  _/  _/  Phone: +61 2 805 2951        /       
\
=> _/_/_/  _/_/_/  _/  _/      _/  _/_/_/   Fax:   +61 2 805 2929         
\_.--._/
=>_/      _/  _/  _/  _/_/_/  _/  _/     PO Box 313 North Ryde 2113 AUSTRALIA   
v

--
Paul S. Sears                *  sears@uh.edu (NeXT Mail OK)
The University of Houston    *  suggestions@tree.egr.uh.edu (NeXT
Engineering Computing Center *  comments, complaints, questions)
NeXT System Administration   *  DoD#1967 '83 NightHawk 650SC 
          >>> SSI Diving Certification #755020059 <<<
"Programming is like sex: One mistake and you support it a lifetime."
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
From: jiro@shaman.com (Jiro Nakamura)
Subject: Re: SCSI drivers (was: Ramdisk coming for NeXT)
Organization: Shaman Consulting
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 03:27:53 GMT

In article <1992Aug11.035939.22924@leland.Stanford.EDU>  
m@crito.Stanford.EDU (M Carling) writes:
> In article <1992Aug10.220747.16164@nic.umass.edu>  
> a74k110@titan.ucc.umass.edu (Chris Lloyd) writes:
> > of the machine it runs on.  There have been more than enough posts to 
> > prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the NeXTs SCSI device driver  
simply
> > stinks speedwise.
> 
> I have yet to see anything definitive on this.  [deleted]

M -- the poster is quite correct, the NeXT computer seems incapable of  
megabit throughput on the SCSI bus.

My own tests using SCSI SpeedGun which access the "sg" SCSI generic driver  
directly gives some of the following numbers. Note that I am using the  
SCSI read command directly at the driver level, avoiding the caching  
problems noted by other posters. Throughput is in kilobits/sec. 


Fixed Hard Drives:
	CDC Wren VI		6781
	Fujitsu M2623S-512	7508 <<-- too low 
	HP97548S		2266 
	Wren VII		6425
	Maxtor XT8380S		3515
	Maxtor XT-8760		3505
	Quantum P40S		2666
	Quantum PD210S		6875
	----------------------------
	Class Average		5141

Removable Hard Drives:
	Syquest SQ555		982
	Syquest SQ5110		1680
	----------------------------
	Class Average		1331

Removable MO drives
	Sony SMOC501		1176

SCSI Floppy Drives:
	PLI Super Floppy:
	DD			67
	HD			101
	ED			134


Disk throughput was computed by reading 5000 blocks from block 0 with a 10  
block incremement on each read. Some devices had different number of  
blocks read due to device limitations (notably the SuperFloppy)


========= Ad Blurb ========
SCSI SpeedGun is one application in a suite of SCSI applications currently  
being developed by Focal Point Computer, Inc. It allows for very accurate  
sector-to-sector seek time evaluation and data throughput speeds. It also  
allows for testing the media integrity of a hard drive.

Other components of the SCSI suite include:
	SCSI Formatter: Full low and high level formatting and paritioning
		  with a NeXTSTEP GUI
	SCSI Inquirer II: SCSI bus device interrogation, supports SCSI-2
		  devices
	SCSI ReassignBlocks: SCSI bad block (low-level) reassignment
	SCSI SpeedGun: mentioned above
	SCSI Commander: Developer level application and object
		code requisite to developing and testing SCSI devices
		on the NeXT Computer System

This suite should be available 3Q1992, Industry Standard Time (i.e., add  
about four months to this) to OEMs and VARs.
=============================


	- Jiro Nakamura
	NeXT R&D / Focal Point Computer, Inc.

-- 
Jiro Nakamura				jiro@shaman.com (NeXTmail)
NeXTwatch / Technical Editor		76711,542 (CIS)
The Shaman Group			+1 607 277-1440 (Voice/Fax)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
From: tagreen@lothario.cica.indiana.edu (Todd A Green)
Subject: Re: FYI... [ color version of PS wraps for TimeMon 2.2 ]
Organization: CICA - Center for Innovative Computer Applications
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 14:36:02 GMT

In article <1992Aug14.140911.936@menudo.uh.edu> sears@tree.egr.uh.edu writes:
> [concerning TimeMon 2.2]
>Has this version been updated to work under 3.0????  I have never been able to
>successfully launch TimeMon under 3.0 PR1 & PR2...

Works fine for me, though I compiled it under 2.1, so it would work on
our machines that are not beta testing 3.0

Todd
--
NeXTmail:  tagreen@cica.indiana.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
From: spagiola@frinext.stanford.edu (Stefano Pagiola)
Subject: Re: WordPerfect Development Continues
Reply-To: spagiola@frinext.stanford.edu
Organization: DSO, Stanford University
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 92 21:47:48 GMT

Neil Greene writes
> I certainly hope WP or some other word processing
> application for the NeXT will support STYLES and
> DESCRIPTIONS like those found in Ami Pro for Windows.  
> 
If the WP people had their act together, they'd start a  
mailing list of suggested improvements/enhancements/bug  
corrections.

--
-
Stefano Pagiola
Food Research Institute, Stanford University
spagiola@frinext.stanford.edu (NeXTMail encouraged)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
From: jeffo@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (J.B. Nicholson-Owens)
Subject: Re: What DTP/WP do tables (other than Frame)?
Reply-To: jeffo@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 00:54:46 GMT

tlm@nextasy.physics.mcmaster.ca (Tom Marchioro) writes:
>While there are many possibilities, you might also want to consider
>TeX, which is *free* (in the sense that it's bundled) and is capable of 
>making virtually any kind of table, including fancy rules, equations, 
>mixed entries, a wide range of fonts, etc. etc.  

Yes, TeX would be a good answer to my problems if only it's power and
cross-platform re-useability came with a GUI.  Unfortunately, I don't
have the time to learn another programming language, yet I still have
the need to be able to graphicly manipulate everything I do.  A
GUI-oriented DTP seems to be the only solution for me.

I hear it's quite capable of doing anything, which is good, but I wish
that it's power wasn't dependant upon one learning a language.  I know
that there are GUI previewers and debuggers (similar to Yap, except
for TeX and not Postscript), but what I need is 100% GUI, no new
language learning needed.

>The basic rule of TeX is that making the *first* table is hard, but after
>that they're all pretty easy as you just recopy the same format.

This is how I wish so many GUI DTP programs would be, even Frame can't
make a format out of the kind of tables I need.  Tables where the whole
thing isn't a checkerboard of some height and width seems to be beyond
Frame's ability.  Something like this would be a piece of cake for TeX,
I'm sure, but for Frame...well...no:

  |------------------------------------------|
  | XXXXXXXXXXXXXX |                         |
  |----------------|                         |
  | YYYYYYYYYYYYYY |                         |
  | YYYYYYYYYYYYYY |                         |
  |-----------------------------------------------------------|
  |             Q               Q                Q            |
  |-----------------------------------------------------------|
  |                             H                             |
  |-----------------------------------------------------------|

X = shading of 13% of a color (13% refers to luminance) background
Y = pure white background
Q = vertical borders that are exactly 1/4 of the way between the left
and right edges of the table.  No matter how much this table row is
sized, these vertical borders are always at a fixed relative position.
H = same as Q, but this is halfway between the left and right borders
on the same row.

>Hope this is Helpful 

Thank you for responding, but by no fault of yours, TeX is not for me.
-- 
-- Jeff (jeffo@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu)
-- No NeXTmail please
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
From: dpp@athena.com (David Pollak)
Subject: Re: Mesa --- lack of database functionality
Reply-To: dpp@athena.com (David Pollak)
Organization: Athena Design, Inc.
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 14:37:46 GMT

In article <1992Aug21.175959.4645@mwhhlaw.uucp> uunet!mwhhlaw!bob (Robert  
L. Hartley Jr.) writes:
> 
> David, I think your points are very well taken, except,
> 
> > why don't you buy a database (like Sybase)?
> 
> Have you priced that sucker lately?
> 

Point well taken.

There's a company in Connecticut called SofDesign (203.629.0970) which has  
a database product called QuickBase that has SQL capabilities and is  
priced under $200.  I spoke with them twice and they did not hit on my  
Bozo radar.  Other than that, since I have not used it, I cannot endorse  
their product.  Maybe someone who has used QuickBase can give a quick  
summary of their reaction to the product.

David

-- 
David Pollak - dpp@athena.com - NeXTMail Compliant
Attorney at Law,
Feeder of the Bears, Athena Design, Inc.
From: sandell@chowning.CNMAT.Berkeley.EDU (Gregory J. Sandell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software
Subject: mail program: how to change default # of columns in send window
Date: 13 Aug 1992 18:37:30 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
NNTP-Posting-Host: chowning.cnmat.berkeley.edu


Hi,

There is a problem I have with the NeXT mail program which drives me  
crazy.  For some reason, Send windows (when in Non-NEXT format) have a  
default of 70 columns per line.  This is true on my machine, at least.

Alot of text I send in mail comes from files that were created in  
80-column format...that is there are returns/linefeeds in the text to make  
it conform to no more than 80 characters per line.  Whenever I paste that  
into a Send window, it reformats it to 70 columns and keeps the  
return/linefeeds exactly where they were; this looks ugly to say the  
least.  For heavens sake, isn't there a way to change this default to 80  
columns?  I couldn't find a way to do this in the preferences dialog for  
Mail.

Yes, I hear you complain, "why not create all your text in a NeXT editing  
program so you don't have to worry about returns and linefeeds?"  The fact  
is I am constantly grabbing and creating text from non NeXT machines!  

Yes, I hear you complain, "Why are you sending your mail in non-NeXT  
format?"  Because 99% of the people I send mail to don't have NEXT  
machines.  Unless I send it ascii, it gets formatted ugly.

Thanks in advance,
--
Greg Sandell
Research Fellow, Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT)
sandell@cnmat.cnmat.berkeley.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.software