Archive Magazine CD 1995/Archive Magazine CD 1995.iso/discs/pipeline/abacus/p_line/DreamProg1/ReadMe

Text File | 1993-10-16 | 9KB | 176 lines

%OP%VS4.13 (28-Apr-92), Gerald L Fitton, R4000 5966 9904 9938
%OP%DP0
%OP%IRY
%OP%PL0
%OP%HM0
%OP%FM0
%OP%BM0
%OP%LM4
%OP%PT1
%OP%PDPipeLine
%OP%WC1026,2262,1024,1748,0,0,0,0
%CO:A,72,72%
%C%Underrated PipeDream
%C%by Elwyn Morris
Keywords:
DreamProg PipeDream Morris

Underrated PipeDream

This letter is totally unsolicited and has been written as a result of
my astonishment that, as far a I know, nobody else has yet written
something like it!

The PipeDream package has not, in my opinion, received the praises it
should have done.  It has been underrated, and, if reviews, reports and
the like in the Archimedes press is anything to go by, not used to its
full potential.  This may be why it is being replaced with another
series of programs.  I would like to try and rectify this poor
publicity that PipeDream has received, even if I am only preaching to
the converted!

Its first advantage of PipeDream, hardly ever mentioned by anybody, is
that it runs under two operating systems.  Although when run under
MS-DOS, the program is less developed and less versatile than when run
within RISC OS, PipeDream is still more all embracing and allows far
greater scope for ingenuity of use than does any other PC-based
spreadsheet that I know of.  Yet it can, if used within the narrow
criteria ranges demanded of such PC programs, be read backwards and
forwards between them at great advantage to the user.

In fact, recently, I had to produce a series of drawings and backup
documents for one client who required a major space replanning exercise
involving many offices spread over a wide area.  Besides GDS CAD
drawings (which had to be read via DXF into AutoCad), there were
spreadsheets which had to be able to accept lengthy notes, area
analysis, databases with spreadsheet incorporated, CARtagraph and NHER
space and heating data sheets and much more in the package that we had
to prepare.  One of the essential binding programs to enable all to
interrelate was PipeDream (via its ability to read backwards and
forwards into Lotus 123 and therefrom into Excel and Paradox).  Much of
the complex structuring of the PipeDream files had to be done on the
Archimedes before copying over to a PC, it is true, but it all came
together and all worked without much difficulty.  Needless to say, I
was simply learning new tricks - perhaps tricks nobody else had ever
thought of - in each of the programs I was using as I went along.
Also, perhaps, I should say that I am not very proficient in MS-DOS or
RISC OS programming or in any of the above programs I mention either.

On this flexibility of which PipeDream is capable but which many seem
to know little about, you were kind enough to publish one of my main
database/spreadsheet "hiding column" tricks I use a lot on the last
Pipeline disk.

For myself, with the use of both an Acorn machine and a cheap PC
notebook of my own and the office's PCs, this intercommunication that
PipeDream allows, not only between operating systems but between
spreadsheets as well is a godsend.

The second great bonus is also not often mentioned.  This is that the
RISC OS version of PipeDream is able to use a choice of printing
methods.  Most of my reports, lecture notes, database generated charts
or records and the like are for my own use only.  These are also often
revised and updated. As a result of both of these criteria, they do not
need to be printed out very beautifully and, anyway, there is not
enough time to wait for fifty or a hundred pages which take something
like a page a minute when using the RISC OS printer drivers.  With
PipeDream, one can use the printer's own facilities and still obtain
acceptable hard copy, yet, when an artistic copy to commercial
standards is required, this can be obtained also.  As far as I know
PipeDream is the only program written for the Acorn computer in which
one can do this, unlike other programs which I often use simply because
they can activate the printer's own fonts.  Programs that I am thinking
of are Interword, Protext and Masterfile II, which were not originally
written for the Archimedes, it is true, (but neither was PipeDream).
They are also not multi-tasking (which PipeDream now is).  In addition,
they cannot use RISC-OS drivers which PipeDream can!

Incidentally, as programs are further developed, or superseded, the
facility to use a printer's own drivers is being discarded by
programmers and this I find tragic.  The "Z" range  which seems to be
replacing PipeDream looks (if Wordz is anything to go by) as if it will
be a winner but printing is only possible using RISC OS printer
drivers.  It therefore will not be used a great deal by me.  Interword
has been replaced by Impression which I do use a lot but, as it is a
very different animal from Interword, I still use Interword more.
Masterfile III is a total wash out and, unlike Masterfile II (nearly
all of whose files are now in PipeDream), was a total waste of money as
far as I am concerned.  On Protext, Arnor say they are going to make it
multi-tasking and more RISC-OS compliant and I only hope they do not
jettison direct printing via their printer drivers as well.  If they
do, I will go on using the present version and not buy the upgrade.

The final bonus has been made much of, it is true, but it is still a
major bonus worth emphasising again as some reviewers are losing sight
of it.  This is PipeDream's ability to change into a word processor or
simple database from a spreadsheet base.  No PC spreadsheet that I know
of can do this.  I came late to PipeDream and then somewhat unwillingly
as I am totally uninterested in spreadsheets yet once I became
accustomed to its idiosyncrasies I would not be without it.  I accept
that what I require from a database may be pretty basic but I find
PipeDream does what I want better than more sophisticated stand alone
programs.  (I have found that databases in PipeDream can be more word
processed than can stand alone database offerings and even having
spreadsheet functions incorporated as well - perhaps of course!)

How Colton Software keep the prices of their upgrades down to Acorn
standards (ie they usually only cost the sending of a stamped addressed
envelope) where PC competitors charge £50 plus for even the most
moderate of improvements to a program is another facet which never
ceases to astonish me.  Perhaps it is because Acorn software is geared
to a small private or equally circumscribed cash-strapped educational
market rather than the much larger commercial one that they have learnt
how to do this and survive.  One would have thought a small user-base
would have pushed prices up rather than down.

In conclusion, I can only say that I hope Colton Software will go on
supporting PipeDream even if they do not further develop it.  I would,
of course, like them to upgrade the PC version to the same degree as
that for the Acorn machine but I expect that is too much to ask.

Nevertheless, there is no harm in asking it!

I wrote this letter on the only other program which I know of which can
run on both a PC and an Acorn machine, Protext.  I used the vehicle of
writing such a letter to learn about that word processor.  I then
decided, after it was written, to send it to PipeLine as it had turned
into such a peon of praise.  I therefore saved it from Protext as an
ASCII file.  I then loaded it straight into PipeDream and have had to
undertake absolutely no editing of line breaks, paragraph formats, or
anything like that at all!  Whether this praises PipeDream for being
able to easily accept "foreign" formats or Protext for writing an ASCII
file which is simple to transfer - I do not know.  Yet as it is
relatively easy to transfer Interword files to PipeDream (thanks to
Mr David Holden) and Masterfile II files ditto (thanks to
Dr P E Cattermole), it may be that it is PipeDream which is tolerant!

In which case, this is another plus.


 Elwyn Morris
 2 Esplanade Court
 King's Quay Street
 Harwich Essex
 CO12 3DT

15th August 1993

PS on 8th October 1993

This PS was written when I was asked to check the above letter for the
November 1993 PipeLine disc.  I today received my copy of "Acorn
Archimedes".  The free disk on this has a text checking program on it
which works with ASCII files - and PipeDream but not the other most
popular word processors!

In addition, both last month's Archimedes magazine and the Acorn
supplement to this month's bemoan the passing of programs which allow
one to use the text characteristics resident in the printer.  Perhaps I
should start a crusade as I am, since August 1993, finding people who
think like I do about both PipeDream and its versatility.

[By all means start a crusade!  I'm sure that there is a great deal of
 mileage left in PipeDream and I, like you, would like to see it
 further developed - in particular, I would like to see PipeDream 4
 running on a PC in the same way as was the case for PipeDream 2 - GLF]