CompuServe Messages

#Quality of Software

    11-Oct-92 17:33:13
Sb: #Quality of Software
Fm: Andrew Bokelman 73457,1577
To: All
All, I am close to buying a CD player and I want to get a better idea of which software to chose as a bundle. I have looked into this a little by using some CD's at a friends house and I noticed that the quality of this software is VERY different (as is the case of all software). For example, Groliers has a pretty good search method. I can enter key words and then when the article appears I can search within it. It also offers links to other articles. Family doctor also seems to have a good method of doing an initial search and then narrowing it down. But when I looked at Library of the Future I saw no way to do a text search once I was within an article. The World Atlas and the US Atlas were very limited in the information they offered. And in Toolwork's Reference Library I tried out the dictionary and the definitions were very limited. Also, there was no way to highlight a word in the Thesaurus and jump to another list of synonyms (unless I missed something). I know opinions differ and people have different tastes. But I am hoping I can find out here which CD's fall into the "quality" category. I would hope that a CD be comprehensive in the information it contains (unlike US Atlas which only lets you look up a couple of cities in each state). And I would hope that it incorporates what I have come to expect as part of computer software (ie. keyword searches, searches within a selected set after an initial search, lists of title headings and subheadings, the ability to backstep in a search, and the ability to launch a new search via links.) Anyway, one bundle I am looking into is the one from DAK that contains Magazine Rack, U.S History on CD ROM, Bible Library, Time Compact Almanac, and Small Business Consultant with Stat Pack. Any comments would be GREATLY appreciated. ..Andrew