#Amiga's Pathetic!
7 messages in this thread
I concur, we should go after Macintosh programs–they are demonstrably
superior in ease of use than their corresponding IBM counterparts, and in
most cases they are superior in features too (Excel vs. 123 for example).
If WordPerfect, Ashton-Tate, and Microsoft get more involved in the Amiga
market you will see one thing right away–higher prices. ProWrite came out
before WP was even announced, and our pricing was based upon the then
existing competition–Textcraft and Scribble (both $100). Do you think
Excellence (which does look to be designed to compete with ProWrite
originally) would be priced at $300 if its competition was ProWrite ($125)
and VizaWrite ($150)? Notice in their ads they are specifically saying they
are competing with WordPerfect–thus justifying the higher price for a few
more features than ProWrite (and others of similarly low prices).
Do you really want to start paying $400 to $600 for products that are ports
from the IBM world, and have all other Amiga developers also start charging
prices like that? It can happen here too (IBM software was once low priced,
and Mac software for the first two years was almost never priced over $200).
James Bayless
New Horizons Software, Inc.
James,
I don't think, given a choice, anyone would WANT to spend $300. But
if we are talking about businesses, then I don't think the software cost is
as much an issue. It is to the home PC user. If Commodore wants to
penetrate the BIG MONEY market, then the home user is certainly the wrong
market. I bought ProWrite when it first came out and loved it. I talked with
you on the phone several times offering suggestions for future improvements,
many of which were present in 2.0. I love 2.0. I cannot make up my mind
between Excellence and ProWrite. Each has advantages and disadvantages. For
major docs, Excellence wins out because of its ability to handle footnotes,
endnotes, TOC and indices. For convenience and text entry speed, ProWrite
wins hands down. No doubt ProWrite 3.0 will add many of Excellence's
features to compete, but not at the current price. Maybe a tiered market can
develop. Power programs at Power prices and less powerful at less powerful
prices. ProWrite 2.0 is a bargain. It's a great product at a good price. I
recommend it to anyone who asks. But sometimes I need more in my
wordprocessor. BTW, does ProWrite support the Amiga clipboard? I keep
forgetting to check that out. I can say this with surety, if ProWrite came
out with a new version with the same features as Excellence, I will buy it
just because I like 2.0 and I think you guys make a quality product. Now,
how about a statistical package? Something like StatView512 on the MAC but
with discrim analysis and cluster analysis. Amy desperately needs a stat
package.
Steve
Steve,
There is a quite extensive Stat package out for the Amiga that is
marketed by LionHeart Software. Have you looked at it yet? If so, I'd be
interested in your opinions. If not, it's a highly 'ported' looking product,
but it features an _extensive_ number of programs for doing all sorts of
business and scientific, statistical functions.
-John
The LionHeart package is to say the least poor. I tried it on an ST and it
really was unfriendly. reasonable power but hostile.
Bob? Of B/Graph fame?
Bob, hostile is polite!!!!!
John,
I have the Lionheart package and it is terrible. Technically the
software is fine, but it is a collection of Basic (I think) programs which
have been separately compiled and use standard Basic line input. None of the
programs are integrated. The docs are a superb intro to stats, but no one
program is actually explained. Usage is left up to experimentation. The
programs don't use a consistent data file format, so you must learn each
format. A translation program is supplied for translating foreign formats,
but the program is not documented. In all the package is awful. I
complained to the author but never received a reply and, of course, am stuck
the $200 it cost.
I could not recommend it to anyone unless they were truly desperate.
Steve