11/30/93:

SOME INFORMAL REVIEWS

DANMAR SYSTEMS' SCSISCAN (OS/2 Version)

I just installed a HP ScanJet II cx and attached it to an
AMI FastSCSI Controller. I am using the new *.ADD driver
from AMI. The combination works great. The Danmar driver
allows you to attach the HP scanner to most SCSI adapters
driven by an ADD file. It is only the driver, you have to
use other software to perform the scanning. I have had
no problems with my setup to date. The Windows software
that came with the scanner works well in WINOS2, too
(considering its limitations).

What we need now, however, is some TWAIN compatible OS/2
software for scanning. Also, scanner support for FaxWorks.

Bottom line: thumb up to SCSIScan.
 
WORD PROCESSING

I think everyone should run out to your local software house
and buy SmartSuite by Lotus. Not because it is a great bundle.
I don't know yet how good it is. But because Lotus is in the 
forefront of OS/2 development. The pattern to date with other
developers has been to bring out an inferior product -- several
generations old or using Mirrors -- and then abandon OS/2 because
no one buys it. It never occurs to these guys that we are 
discriminating users, or we would not be using OS/2 in the
first place. We would rather have CorelDraw 4.0 under WINOS/2 than
CorelDraw 2.0 under OS/2. We would really rather have CorelDraw 5 under
OS/2, but because we did not buy 2.5, we may never have the chance.

Now, a bit of heresy.

I have three OS/2 Word Processors on my system: WordPerfect 5.2, DeScribe
4.0 and AmiPro 3.0. The writing tool I like the best is... PageMaker 5.0,
but since I am gravitating towards native OS/2 applications where
possible (they just feel better) I now use PM5 only for serious stuff.

I dismiss WP5.2. I never liked the Windows version -- and this IS
the Windows version. Bugs and all. I have not used it much in
the last several months. If I use WP (because I have formatted files that
need to be reused) I tend to go back to 5.1 for DOS. I have had trouble
printing to disk using a postscript driver and to fax using the FaxWorks
driver. EPS graphics files do not print -- instead they display the
"For postscript printers only" message in the area where the graphic
is supposed to be. The Windows version does it right. I tried using
TIF, but both the Windows and OS/2 versions imported the back logo as
red, making it unusable in the fax form I was creating.

Over time, I have gravitated towards DeScribe. Frames take getting used to
(compared to PageMaker's more flexible approach). But the program gives
you incredible control for a Word Processor. I do have a few quibbles: 
grabbing and resizing frames should be easier; the implementation of
small caps is weird and annoying (all letters, small and caps, are
made small and you un-small the real caps that you want big). 

I awaited impatiently the arrival of AmiPro -- a REAL Word Processor
for OS/2.

OK. It's here. And I found myself not as bowled over as I had expected.
It is similar to DeScribe in that it uses frames. Frames seem easier to
create, move and resize than in DeScribe. But, they are slightly more
cumbersome to type text into. DeScribe gives you more ways of specifying
size and location. Let's call it a tie on frames.

My initial impression is that DeScribe is much faster than AmiPro.
It seems to load in faster, load documents faster and print to disk
faster. I have used AmiPro only on my notebook, so I have not tried it
with my printer, yet.

I think that AmiPro may have a problem with printing certain complex
pages that DeScribe has no trouble with. In fact, I suspect that there
may be a bug in the print portion of the program. Either that, or the
postscript driver I have been using for months suddenly broke on its own.
Suffice it to say that I spent hours trying to figure why some files
would print to disk (using the Apple LaserWriter Plus Driver) or
to fax (FaxWorks Driver) and others would not. Strange messages about
deleting eight jobs form the print queue (which was, in fact, empty)
lead me to think that something odd is going on in AmiPro. In the end,
however, I could not use my printer drivers for DeScribe either because
of access violations (even with AmiPro shut down). I ended up deleting
them and reinstalling.

Bottom line: There may be glitches in AmiPro. Be cautious. Even without
these problems (if the problems were caused by AmiPro), I am not sure
which of the two -- AmiPro or DeScribe -- I will end up using day to 
day. Right now, I suspect DeScribe. It has excellent import and export
filters (so we can still use all the old WP stuff). It has unlimited
UNDO -- a great feature! It is fast and gives one precise control.

AmiPro has the BIG advantage that it comes from Lotus -- giving OS/2
a validation it sorely needs. But, to us who know OS/2 and don't,
ourselves, need the validation, perhaps we ought to have the courage
to say that DeScribe is still, marginally, the best Word Processor
for OS/2 and that DeScribe ought to be validated by its early and
superior support of this operating system. In other words, perhaps
DeScribe ought to launched by OS/2, rather than OS/2 launched by
AmiPro!

What we really need is for Aldus to get wise and write PageMaker for
OS/2. Or, even better, for someone to write a DTP package with the
ease of use and features of PageMaker, but with a text editing program
like DeScribe (instead of the inferior editor in PageMaker) and with
graphics editing features. Corel, are you reading this?