#Spreadsheet
27 messages in this thread
I saw Professional Calc by GoldDisk demoed at AmiEXPO today. If the real
stuff is as good as the demo, ladies and gentlemen, we have an Amiga
spreadsheet, at last.
I'm most familiar with the Sun version of Wingz, so I will say that ProCalc
has Wingz-like capabilities with a ProPage-like interface.
2D, 3D, bar, pie, line, column, x-y, and area charts. High quality graphics
display and output (including PostScript). Hypertext-like data expansion
(GD calls it collapsible outlining.) Reads/writes Lotus files and "most"
Lotus macros. dBase text data front end.
What's missing? A couple of chart types, maybe. Axial chart rotation. SQL
query. I can dream can't I?. 🙂
Available any day now, $295 list.
What else did you see at the show?
Steve
What else did I see at AmiEXPO? Well, I had only been to East Coast Amiga
shows before, so this one in Oakland was an experience. It was an
interesting crowd – not so much numbers, which seemed decent enough, but
more the experience level of the attendees. It was a very sophisticated and
also very friendly bunch of people.
Digital Micronics Resolver TI34010 1280×1024 graphics board and SAGE
library. DMI said this board *is* the A2410; C= has delivered the Lowell
UNIX/X11 code for porting. Floptical drive coming "real soon."
Progressive Peripherals and Software RAMbrandt software and video card with
onboard graphics compression hardware and 32 bit graphics. SAGE Library.
68040 board running 60 frames per second animation.
Programs Plus and Video"Real 3-D" raytrace rendering and display with HAM,
IFF24, TARGA output; on a FusionForty, it redefines fast.
OXXI/Aegis SpectraColor Paint for the HAM-E. Very pretty. StatPro 3D
statistical analysis with 3-D graphics.
<continued>
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Electronic Arts. Showing DPIV. They were actively soliciting suggestions
for a Deluxe Music revision. Everybody is invited to write Orlando Guzman,
E.A., 1450 F. I. Blvd, San Mateo, CA 94404 A $7.50 DMCS upgrade is
available for "improved" ADOS2.0 performance.
Pacific Digital showed some single purpose F/X generation software. Stars
F/X, for example, does *everything* you can imagine with the
stars-viewed-from-a-spaceship idea for $20.
Carina Software showed "Voyager" – a very nice astronomy program ported
from their Macintosh product with color and features added.
Inovatronics amazed with Directory Opus; springtime for PowerWindows3.
Microprose used a TomCruiseClone in flight suit to charm the kids and
Centaur let them play "Fantastic Voyage."
There was lots more including great Toaster and sound/music software and
digitizers about which somebody smarter than I can talk.
Out of five, it was the best Amiga show I've ever attended.
Sounds like you had a good time! Thanks for the info.
Steve
Since posting the ProCalc message, I heard the comment that the spreadsheet
engine is probaby the same one that drives Advantage, meaning that it could
use some improvements.
The demo by GoldDisk emphasized output both as high quality spreasheet
printing and as EPS or ProDraw Clip files for incorporation into ProPage
layouts.
So, it may be best to claim I saw an excellent business graphics package
that integrates very well with ProPage.
ProCalc definitely does not do linkages and collapsible outlining isn't
really a substitute for that lack. But it appears to do single sheet things
well
Rob,
I think you'll be very pleasantly suprised in the near future from another
spreadsheet product. It'll have the MS-DOS and Mac world envious.
-sja
Just don't keep it a secret when it comes out. :^) I've been waiting for a
full-featured Amiga spreadsheet since 1985. BTW, if it's not too late to
ask for features…. :^)
Seriously, one feature my current least-offensive spreadsheet has that I
like a lot is high-low-close graphs for displaying stock prices. Much
niftier than the line graph, and displays more information in a given
graph.
Mike
That's what I heard before Maxiplan I came out. 🙂 — Art
Comparing the author of the spreadsheet Steve is talking about to Mike
Lehman is like comparing Einstein against Jerry Pournelle.
I'd have to say that of all the people and companies involved in making
sheets, I have more faith in this un-named coming one than all the rest put
together.
You probably will too, when you find out where it's coming from.
–Ben
I hope you're right, Ben. Given the history of Amiga S-sheets you'll allow
me to be a bit wary of hype, eh? — Art
Sure will. Don't blame you one little bit. But *I* have faith in this one.
:^) For whatever that's worth.
Ben
Oh Steve…you really know how to pique one's interest!
What is meant by "near" future? How long must we wait? More info please!
via Whap! Al Benglen
74615,500
Rob,
-> engine is probaby the same one that drives Advantage
I know that Mike has done a lot of work on it. This _isn't_ Advantage 2.0,
it's Professional Calc. Though I must say that they look fairly similar
(though PCalc allows multiple fonts in the spreadsheet window and has a
Control Panel). PCalc is _much_ more powerful.
-> The demo by GoldDisk emphasized output
Well, that's the sort of thing that is more visible than raw
number-crunching. That's probably what I'd show too. That and how well it
integrates with TransWrite too.
-> ProCalc definitely does not do linkages
Not sure what you mean by this. It's definitely do-able to get data into
and out of other spreadsheets in memory and there's function that will grab
a cell from a sheet on disk. Those are what I think of when you say
"linkages". Am I missing your point?
Malcolm
I certainly didn't intend to disparage PCalc; I _thought_ everything I said
was favorable. Since I don't know the specifics of the data engine
operation but was aware of some shortcomings in Advantage, I decided it was
better to praise most specifically only what I was shown and allowed to
play with.
By links, I mean referential data relationships among spreadsheets with
automatic updating of data wherever they are referenced.
Mike Iampietro's unqualified answer to "Does it do links?" was "No."
I happen to _like_ the PPage interface and meant that comment as good news
for your present PPage customers. PCalc definitely has the GoldDisk family
look.
Lots of people on CIS are hoping for a great Amiga spreadsheet. Feel free
to cite specifics and brag. 🙂
Rob,
Yeah, I don't know specifics of the data engine operation either; but then,
that's true of Lotus too. Really, it should be outside the realm of the
user's concerns. <shrug>
With the kind of links you're talking about, does a sheet on _disk_ get
updated? If so, that is not a part of PCalc. However, a sheet in memory
that references a sheet on disk _will_ be updated when the sheet is
calculated.
I like the PPage interface too but I did need to be instructed in the use
of some of it. Course, I'm terrible about icons. Lots of times I won't
realize what the picture represents and, once I do, I won't clue in to what
operation it represents. 🙂
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Most of the time, for me, I
don't know WHICH thousand words. Generally, I'd rather have the thousand
words than the picture.
Actually, I _did_ have to ask about one of the icons in PCalc.
Malcolm
Rob,
I'd agree that the Amiga now has an excellent spreadsheet program in
Professional Calc.
I've written the manual for it and have been using the software for a
couple of months now.
I don't know Wingz so I can't comment on that aspect; but I think you're
not giving PCalc enough credit when you say a ProPage-like interface. I
feel that ProPage is somewhat anomalous among Amiga apps. (wicked
alliteration, sorry <G>)
PCalc is much more like a standard Ami interface. And as far as features
go: there are more charts than you've stated, user-defined functions,
hiding of rows and columns and enough ARexx support to choke a horse!
In addition to an ARexx command language that includes everything in the
program (and more), there's even a REXX function. This one will run a
script each time the sheet is recalculated. You could use this to get
something like MAPL to integrate w/PCalc to provide any math routines that
PCalc doesn't provide (and it provides LOTS). Try THAT with your Lotus! 😉
I think that a lot of people will be very impressed with it.
Malcolm
I just caught the tail end of this discussion and since you said that you
wrote the manual, I geuss you're the best one to ask questions. I use
maxiplan 4 hours a day in a science lab. Some of the things that I have
found in spreadsheets in the past are missing. (with no chance of ever
getting in maxiplan). Such as insert mode, where you can insert into the
spreadsheet cell and the lower cells all move down
one. Multiple views on the same spreadsheet. True statistic calculation of
std deviation (where divider is n-1 like on an HP calculator).
Process control charts. And where when you save a spreadsheet, the
previous spreadsheets is renamed *.bak. I scrapped alot to get maxiplan
back in the days of kickstart 1.1. I would be more than willing to pay for
a decent spreadsheet program if
it has functionality above what I really need.
Michael,
I gather that by 'multiple views' you don't mean the traditional 'lock
columns'…not sure exactly what you do mean tho. Also, what is a 'process
control chart'?
"Multiple Views" refers to having several different "vuews" of the same
sheet … in separate windows. In other words, you might have a sheet with
a year's acocunting details … in another window, you have just the
summary statistics which were elsewhere on the sheet.
Mike (Whapping from the UK)
Vic,
Multiple views means you open another window on the spreadsheet. Lets you
watch one section while you work on another. Handy when you want to see the
effects but the work area is remote from the effects area. At least, that's
what I took Michael's question to mean.
Malcolm
Well, if that's what "multiple views" means, Gold Disk Advantage already
does it. >> Ron Legro / Milwaukee
via WHAP!
What version of advantage is that? Or is it something that is not
documented? I have version 1.12d. As far as control charts go (I know
that you didn't ask the question, but it is part of the message thread),
control charts are a was of monitoring some process where you have
a point for each data and a running deviation bracketing the data points.
You use these statistical charts to determine if youre process
is out of control. An example would be car wrecks per day in a square mile
in the city. Each day you plot the number of accidents. Over
say a month, the average seems to be about 3 per day. Suddenly, you have
30 accidents in one day. If for a period of time, say a week, was the
average and then it dropped back to 3 per day, would indicate that
something caused this. This type of graph is kind of a watch dog. If
something happens, you go looking for the cause.
Michael,
I presume that you mean inserting a row? MaxiPlan doesn't have that?
Transactor actually bought a copy of MaxiPlan but it never worked.
PCalc does allow multiple views. Don't know about the std dev calculation.
If you'd like to give me a revelatory example I can give it a try.
Don't know what you mean by process control charts, sorry. PCalc does not
make BAK files.
Malcolm
Malcolm,
I'v virtually certain he doesn't mean 'insert row'. I'm pretty sure he
means 'insert cell in this column'.
Vic,
Well, `insert cell in this column' is a new one on me. I don't think I've
ever seen such a thing.
However, it's dead easy (and fast) to move the column down a cell or two
(or anywhere).
Malcolm
I used a spreadsheet package years ago on a PRO380 (VAX's attempt at the pc
market). It had the capability of inserting one cell into a given row and
moving all the previous entrys in that column down one. It would be like
being in any editor. No data is lost, and the format of the spreadsheet
isn't disrupted. An example of needing this would be if you are a touch
typer and while entering data, you haven't been looking at the screen.
After you entered a whole column of data, you look up and see that you
missed an entry at the beginning. Now you can cut and paste to move the
section down that was incorrect, but it would be nice to be able to use a
hot key, go into insert mode and correct the error.