Plain speaking

Ours is a good platform, but as it gets older, bits of the platform 
keep falling further behind and this leads to more people abandoning 
ship. To help maintain it, I would urge authors to write documentation 
we can all understand.
My Mega STe has to work - hard! I use it for MIDI and it puts in a lot 
of hours. I have neither the time nor the inclination to plough through 
reams of instructions, written in Esperanto, which assumes my computer 
knowledge qualifies me for a senior position with NASA.
Recently I decided to take the plunge and get a modem. With a great 
deal of help from Jim Hornby of the Wrinklies Club, I got to grips with 
CIX conferencing and email and suddenly the world was my lobster.
Flushed with success I downloaded the World Wide Web archive to 
checkout what the internet was all about - well, I'm still wondering!
Read all the documentation files it says! They are scattered all over 
the place like confetti in a church yard. There are over 150 files to 
wade through to find them all - I know because I noticed the number 
when I dumped them all in the trash can! Call me a luddite but I really 
did try, yet I was completely unable to get it up and running.

So here's the point of this sad tale. I want documentation which tells 
me how to use the program - much like the instructions which accompany 
modelling kits. I don't want to know how it works, I don't even want to 
know why it works - I just want to use it.
I don't want my Atari to be like a vintage car that you tinker with, 
repair, tune up and polish, but never drive more than five miles, I 
want the convenience of a modern car - fill it up, get in and drive - 
Is that really too much to ask?

** Italics on **
Eddie Gray via CIX   
** Italics off **

** Bold on **
We may well be into the twilight zone of our platform but since the 
introduction of ST-Guide the quality of useful documention has 
increased dramatically. Eddie is right to emphasise the need to include 
instructions, even if masses of technical details are also included.
I agree the world wide web archive is difficult for beginners to get to 
grips with but we know it works - hundreds of Atarians are already 
using this package.
With the imminent launch of a web browsing package from Oregon Research 
and the French WenSuite package I suspect the element of competition 
will bring benefits for us all.
** Bold off **

Keep the faith

I am writing to anyone thinking of switching to a PC - you might not 
have to!
My two kids, like most nowadays, use a computer for project work at 
school. I'd been thinking about buying a PC to enhance the quality of 
the work they could produce.
With the latest PCs aimed at home use costing well over œ1000, plus 
extra for a printer and bering in mind it will undoubtedly be outdated 
next year I thought perhaps I was working at the problem from the 
wrong end and started to consider upgrading my Atari based system.
I spotted the Protext re-launch in AC#3 and ordered a copy - taking 
its re-launch as a good omen for my upgrade plan. This latest version 
is a revelation - full of features I expected to have to buy a PC to 
get! Protext has a real-time spell checker, a Thesaurus, colour image 
support (GIF and IMG), print preview, different coloured text output, 
import/export options including RTF and much more.
I'm running this all from floppies on a 2Mb STe machine with the 
dictionary loading from reset-proof RAM disk and the Thesaurus on my 
saved text disk and it all seems to work as fast as the average PC.
Having saved myself a grand I splashed out on an Epson Stylus 100 
Colour inkjet, I choose this model because both Protext and Imagecopy 
have dedicated printer drivers. I aslo understand recent Windows 
printers are not suitable for use with Atari systems because they don't 
include any bitmapped fonts at all.
On my system I settle for 360x360dpi output - although the printer is 
capable of 720x720dpi if I had more memory. The improvement over my old 
dot matrix is astonishing - near laser quality. I was also pleased to 
find older programs such as Write-On and timeworks include drivers to 
support this printer.
OK, so we can't use Encarta, but in two years time my Atari will be no 
more obsolete than the current crop of Pentium PCs!

** Italics on **
Mick Smith, Worthing
** Italics off **

** Bold on **
With both PC and Mac platforms planning significant changes over the 
next eighteen months sticking with your current machine seems a 
sensible strategy - especially if your current machine can get the job 
done.
As for not being able to use Encarta, don't forget the Atari software 
under development by Homa systems which enables many PC based CD-ROMs 
to be read on the Atari platform - but you will need to buy a CD-ROM 
first!
** Bold off **