Path: news.uiowa.edu!chi-news.cic.net!arclight.uoregon.edu!news.bc.net!unixg.ubc.ca!freenet.vancouver.bc.ca!not-for-mail From: gareth@vcn.bc.ca (Gareth Jones) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: AWGS Reclassification Date: 9 Mar 1997 18:43:20 GMT Organization: Vancouver CommunityNet Lines: 334 Message-ID: <5fv0c8$h52@milo.vcn.bc.ca> References: <19970302030200.WAA11716@ladder02.news.aol.com> <5fd3hp$21nq@uni.library.ucla.edu> <331D9915.4CF2@grin.net> <331e1cea.283558251@netnews.worldnet.att.net> <5frsti$o25@borg.svpal.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: opus.vcn.bc.ca X-Newsreader: TIN [UNIX 1.3 BETA-950824-16colors PL0] Here is all the information I've dug up about AWGS, its source code, and efforts to update it. It is an article which is currently _not_ in its final form. Hope it helps, and comments are welcome. -Gareth Notes toward a History of AppleWorks GS Gareth Jones There's a public and a private story to AppleWorks GS (AWGS). The public story has always been known; the private one has only been told in bits and pieces, much of it very recently. I will tell the public story first, then as much as I know of the private one. But first, I'd better describe the program. THE PROGRAM AWGS is an integrated program with six modules: Word Processor, Database, Spreadsheet, Desktop Publishing, Telecommunications, and Graphics. It has both strong and weak components. The Graphics module is unique on the GS, providing both drawing and a painting tools in one package. The word processor is dependable, but doesn't have macros or footnotes. The spreadsheet and database were the best available for the GS, and they allow data to be saved as text files which can be imported (formulas and all) into other Claris programs, such as ClarisWorks. Files can be moved in the other direction just as easily. The telecommunications module is barely usable, but it is there. The Desktop Publishing module lets you combine graphics with word processed documents in a slow but straightforward manner. With a little ingenuity, you can make very pretty documents with AWGS. All in all, AWGS is a match for its contemporary, Microsoft Works 2.0. If it had been updated, who knows how much better it could have become? THE OFFICIAL HISTORY AWGS was developed under the name "GSWorks" by a company called StyleWare, which had previously released several well-received programs for the GS. As GSWorks came close to release, Claris decided that it needed a GS equivalent for its program AppleWorks, and tried to buy the rights to it. StyleWare refused to sell the program, but said that Claris was welcome to buy the company. Eventually, Claris agreed. It bought the company, kept the rights to GSWorks (which it renamed), and sold the rights to all the other StyleWare products to another company, Beagle Bros. Kevin Harvey, the President of StyleWare, came to work for Claris and retained control over the development of AppleWorks GS. After having gone to all that trouble to get AWGS, Claris did very little with it. It released version 1.0 in 1988. A bug fix release (version 1.0v2) followed that, since first release was very buggy. Version 1.1 came in 1989. Its major new feature was that it would work with version 5.x of Apple's system software, which broke the previous releases. ACHILLES' VARIOUS HEELS Claris did nothing with AWGS after version 1.1. As a result, some serious problems remained unfixed. For example,AWGS locks up if the "Easy Access" part of the system software is installed. In addition, AWGS fell behind the state of the art as GS computing developed. It retained its limit of 48 point fonts even after the 1992 releases of System 6 and "Pointless," a Truetype font interpreter for the GS, made large font sizes generally useful and popular. AppleWorks files changed format when versions 4 and then 5 were released, so AWGS could no longer import AppleWorks files created by the most recent versions. Teach files became the most common format for "Read Me" files after the release of System 6. AppleWorks GS cannot import these at all. System 6 allows all sorts of interesting sounds to be attached to system events. Unless you were in AWGS, that is. It had its own boring beep. AppleWorks GS owners saw Claris' refusal to update the program as a sign of contempt for the GS and its owners, and became coldly angry with the company. (Most had a similar attitude towards Apple Computer, Inc. at the time). But, even though Claris wasnÕt doing anything with the program, that didnÕt mean that they wanted to let it out of their hands. On March 25, 1993, Jerry Kindall (President of Quality Computers) posted a message on the Pro-Quality BBS that said, in answer to another post, ÒYou are assuming that we have not tried to buy or otherwise take over AWGS. We have. We have repeatedly been told that they are not interested. Go figure...Ó Finally, in 1994, Claris allowed Quality Computers to develop and market a new version of AppleWorks GS. THE SECOND COMING Quality was what you could call a motivated buyer. They had previously released an excellent upgrade to AppleWorks (the 8-bit version) and wanted to replicate their success with the GS version. They hired a highly experienced programming team headed by Jim Merrit, the former project head for System 5Õs Finder, made announcements as to the probable shipping date for the new version, and started taking orders. Quality split the project into two steps. Version 1.2 was to be a bug-fix version which also incorporated internal changes, and would be smaller and faster than version 1.1. Version 1.2 would satisfy their impatient customers and bring in a little cash while they fulfilled their ambitious plans for version 2.0. The list of new and improved features that Quality wanted for version 2.0 was impressive. General: Support for AppleWorks 4 documents, large fonts, and system sounds. For the word processor: macros, "style sheets," an "insert date" function that would work in any text, not just the document headers, importation of Teach documents, import and export of some Macintosh word processing formats, "Show invisible characters" command (for displaying spaces, tabs, and carriage returns). For Graphics: Bezier curves and rotation of graphic objects in increments of one degree. For Telecommunications: zmodem file transfers. For Page Layout: automatic word wrap around graphics and a print preview mode. Unfortunately, the source code for AppleWorks GS turned out to be a real problem for Quality Computers. It was so badly commented that other programmers found it difficult to follow. It was also so large that, under the early version of the development system that had been used for its creation, it would not even create a single AWGS program file. Two separate sections had to be "hand-stitched" together by the programmer. According to Bill Carver, an employee of the company now known as Scantron Quality Computers, Claris exacerbated the mess when it updated AWGS, by performing quick patches instead of a proper rewrite. The programming team at Quality took the time and effort to modify the source code enough to "build" a copy of the program under contemporary versions of the programmer's shell and language. This was before any other changes could be made to the code. When the extent of the job became evident, the team began to fall apart. An additional problem looming was, in effect, a substantial "non-performance" charge Quality Computers would have to pay if it did not develop and market an update. The following e-mail from Jerry Kindall, the former President of Quality Computers, explains this: There was a non-performance penalty in the contract for AWGS and AW royalties combined. Basically a certain royalty level was guaranteed for a certain period of time (I cannot disclose actual numbers). If royalties fell short of this mark, Quality was to make up the difference. However, Quality did not meet these levels, for reasons which were not entirely their fault. Claris, for one, was supposed to refer all inquiries about AW and AWGS to Quality, but some of their staff was telling customers that the product had been discontinued! Also, the source code for AWGS was next to useless, and while the contract did not actually specify that the source code actually be USEFUL, it clearly was not in the spirit of the agreement to provide source that wouldn't even compile. Claris agreed, and did not hold Quality to payment of the non-performance penalty. (Royalties for AW alone covered more than half the promised payments, and I am confident that if we had been able to produce a working AWGS update, we would have met the contract.) This brings up an interesting question: How close to useless was the source code, anyway? In the Fall 1994 issue of II-Alive magazine (published by Quality Computers), the editor gave the following reply to a letter concerning AWGS 2.0: "Celebrated IIgs programmer Bill Heineman also had a look at it along with programmers from EGO Systems, publishers of GS+ Magazine. Everyone who has seen the code agreed that it would be simpler to rewrite AppleWorks GS from scratch than to attempt to upgrade version 1.1 into version 2.0" Bill Heineman has a somewhat different recollection of events, which he gave in a posting to the Internet news group comp.sys.apple2 on 9 November, 1996, and, in more detail, in private e-mail to me nine days later. He stated that he was invited to work on AWGS about two months after Quality got the rights. The source arrived on five 3.5Ó high density Mac-formatted disks. He verified that the source indeed created version 1.1 of AppleWorks GS when compiled, and he made a few changes to make it compile on his (yet more recent) Assembler. The source was archived, and a copy sent to Jim Merritt and Quality Computers. He then started to work (part time) on version 1.2 of the program. This involved internal changes and fixes for about fifty bugs. After three months of this, in his words, ÒI then started asking how I was to be paid. I was strung along and then I just stopped working on the project since I couldn't get a straight answer about payment.Ó What seems to be true is that Quality Computers did not realize what the upgrade would cost, in terms of programming costs. Bill Carver, an employee of Scantron Quality Computers, intimated as much in an internet posting on November 18, 1996: The projected sales would not even cover the development cost of so large an undertaking. It's a cold, hard, calculated business decision that I hope you can understand. Other alternatives were tried. According to Jerry Kindall: I do recall we investigated acquiring Medley, adding AWGS file format support, and calling that the upgrade. Unfortunately this was not possible because the AWGS database and spreadsheet didn't HAVE a file format; those files were merely disk dumps of the program's internal representation of those types of files. The update was eventually abandoned. Claris eventually agreed that Quality should not have to pay the guaranteed royalties for AppleWorks GS because the source code they supplied was not in usable form. Incidentally, Claris now offers an upgrade deal for AppleWorks GS owners who wish to upgrade to ClarisWorks, but does not offer a similar deal for AppleWorks owners. THE SECRET HISTORY I began researching this essay to discover why two companies (Claris and Quality Computers) would want AWGS so much before they had it, and lose interest so quickly once they had it. This mystery was solved when I learned about their difficulties in using the source code. An additional mystery is why Claris wanted AppleWorks GS in the first place. After all, when Claris was formed, it was clearly focussed on providing Macintosh software. So why did Claris buy StyleWare in order to get a single program, and let every other program developed by the company go to other owners? My own suspicion (not backed up by any evidence) is that they had ideas of developing AWGS into a Macintosh program. When they discovered that they had bought source code that was not easily translatable to the Mac, they must have been very distressed. (I expressed this theory to Jerry Kindall, who thought it was unlikely, due to the differences in GS and Mac programming. He thought that it was just to obtain a lock on the Apple II integrated software market, and that Claris hoped that AWGS would be as popular as AppleWorks). To its credit, Claris did make sure that the program worked by releasing a bugfix version (which was required, since the frequent crashes of version 1.0 reflected badly on the company) and version 1.1 (which was also required for similar reasons, since the first two versions didn't work under System software 5.x). These theories only make sense if it is true that the source code to AppleWorks GS is so poor that the program is almost impossible to alter. Perhaps it is in poor shape, but it is nowhere near as poor as some rumours have made it to be. After three months of work with AppleWorks GSÕs source code, ÒBurgerÓ Bill HeinemannÕs opinion is the most expert available. He states that he could have finished writing version 1.2 in only four more months of part-time work, and created version 2.0 in six additional months. So, it could have been done, but (as mentioned) it could not have been done economically. And that, to date, is the end of the story. Is it the end, though? Although there will almost certainly be no update to AppleWorks GS, there is the very slim possibility that someone would develop it as Òa labour of love,Ó just as Wolfenstein 3D for the GS was written. Such a person would have come to an agreement with Scantron Quality Computers, of course. At the very least, it would be useful to have at least the file formats documented, so that other programs could import AWGS documents. (At the moment, only the word processor file format is documented in a file type note). However, at the moment, Burger Bill writes that I, to this day, still have the original and the 2.0 prototype source code. But unless I get in WRITING from Quality computers that I can use the source. I am powerless to distribute ANYTHING. Whether or not this happens, it is no longer as important an issue for GS users as it once was because of developments in a number of Òstand-aloneÓ programs. That, however, will be the topic for next month. The Quiet Superseding of AWGS Version 2 of AppleWorks GS, as envisioned by Quality Computers, would have been a very powerful tool. However, the fact that it was never completed is less of a loss than it would have been if other developers had not provided substitutes. Every one of AWGS's six modules has been surpassed by stand-alone programs. There is an important advantage of an integrated program, such as AWGS, over a collection of stand-alone programs, and that is that any module is instantly available for use at any time. With stand-alone programs one generally has to quit, for example, the word processor in order to run the paint program. This doesn't have to be the case, however. If you run a program from Seven Hills called "The Manager" (or its shareware equivalent "MultiGS 2.0") before you run either the word processor or paint program. The Manager allows two or more programs to share the GS's memory, and to be available from a menu. With this in mind, I have prepared a list of reasonable and more-than-reasonable substitutes for AWGS modules. Each should run under The Manager (I haven't checked this with the spreadsheet program, however), and each supports the standard GS clipboard for copying and pasting data between different programs' documents. 1. Word processing: For any quick-and-dirty word processing job, any TextEdit-based program will do. Possibilities include Teach, CoolWriter, WordWorks Pro, and ShadowWrite. However, if you truely need a powerful word processing program, with macros and thesaurus and all, get a used copy of WordPerfect IIgs 2.1. It doesn't give you fonts and sizes, but it processes words just fine. Other word processors you could use are BeagleWrite GS (which I haven't tried) and Medley 2.0 (a fascinating program, now freeware, but which doesn't support the standard Clipboard). One other alternative is to do your heavy-duty word processing in your page layout program, which is perfectly feasible thanks to... 2. Page Layout: GraphicWriter III, version 2.0. Although GraphicWriter has been around for a while, version 2.0 is the first to support cutting and pasting text and graphics between different programs. It also has the header/footer, page numbers, and spell-check features of a pretty decent word processor. Seven Hills is committed to developing this program even further. 3. Spreadsheet: Quick Click Calc. I have not used this program, but the reviews have been excellent. It uses Publish and Subscribe technology, has excellent graphing capabilities, and imports AppleWorks spreadsheets. 4. Database: There is no full-featured GS/OS database program that will directly substitute for the one in AWGS, but how about using HyperStudio 3.1? I actually prefer it to the database module in AWGS. HyperCard GS should also be mentioned, but it is not as friendly to The Manager, for reasons that are explained below. 5. Telecommunications: AWGS had a monopoly on GS/OS telecomm programs until the release of Spectrum. There is simply no comparison in features: AWGS is barely useful, whereas Spectrum 2.1 is as good as it gets in telecommunications, especially if it is enhanced with add-ons such as "Talking Tools" for reading text aloud, or "Balloon," for shrinking and unshrinking file archives. 6. Painting: Platinum Paint 2.0 is the best candidate to replace the graphics module in AppleWorks GS. Its major competitor, DreamGrafix, does not currently operate under The Manager, nor does the older program PaintWorks Gold. All of these are purely paint programs, however, without the ÒdrawingÓ tools in AWGS. For the latter, Animasia 3D, a powerful tool for drawing and animating, may be an appropriate substitute. A note on integration and The Manager. Zero page requirements: AppleWorks GS (all modules) 17K WordPerfect IIgs 2.1, 4K GraphicWriter III, version 2.0, 4K (half of that used by version 1.1) Quick Click Calc (unknown, since I don't have that program to test). HyperStudio 3.1 5K (If you are going to use The Manager, HyperStudio's low use of zero page memory gives it a crucial advantage over HyperCard IIgs, which hogs about 21K of the zero page! If you are not, then the programming language built into HyperCard is more complete than the one in HyperStudio). Spectrum 2.0, 4K Platinum Paint 2.0, 4K In other words, with enough RAM, and excluding Quick Click Calc (for which I don't have figures on Zero page usage), you could operate all of these programs simultaneously on a GS, cutting and pasting between them merrily. I regard this as a very satisfactory substitute for the AppleWorks GS 2.0 that was never written.