Re: Grading & Excel-dropping 1

["Richard W. Tarara" <rtarara@saintmarys.edu>]

Some general comments about upgrading software:

a)  With Hard Disk space running under $100 per GIGABYTE, decrying space
requirements of a couple hundred Megabytes for full office suites (complete
with clipart, etc.) is hardly relevant.  Same for memory at < $5 per Meg
(when a grad-student, memory for our PDP-9 ran $1 per byte!)

b)  I would be the first to say--"If you're happy with WordPerfect 4.2 for
DOS (or the equivalent) go ahead and continue to use it.  However, if one
takes the time to examine the newer packages and learn the new features, in
MOST cases, it is worthwhile to upgrade (at least every two iterations of
the software).

c)  In the PC world, the Windows versions of WP/Qpro WORD/EXCEL brought us
true WYSIWYG expecially if one used graphics in documents (I do), and
subsequent upgrades have marginally improved the handling of these more
complex documents (although I reserve judgement on Office 97 versus Office
95).

d)  Of course, if you want to see REAL speed from your computer, run your
old DOS programs on a PII 300 MHz machine.  (For you Mac types, it may be
difficult to get your old monochrome, Mac Pro software to run on a PowerMac;
but if you can, then you'll see the same speed effects.)

e)  As Apple positions itself as a Server/OS company and tries to shed its
unprofitable ventures (read--the academic market), deeply ingrained Mac
users MAY have to switch OR count on Mr. Bill to supply software that will
run on either old Mac platforms or the Mac OS running on Intel machines.
{Anybody else read about THE HOUSE in US News--66,000 square feet BUT only a
'modest' 11,500 in the private family quarters.}

Rick

-----Original Message-----
From: Prof. John P. Ertel (wizard) <jpe@nadn.navy.mil>
To: phys-l@atlantis.uwf.edu <phys-l@atlantis.uwf.edu>
Date: Tuesday, December 16, 1997 11:27 AM
Subject: Re: Grading & Excel-dropping 1


> The comments of Hugh Haskell below are, in my mind, right on the money
> (forgive the pun)!  After almost two years of having the full Microsoft
> Office (Word-6, Excel-5, etc.), most of us here at the Naval Academy
> (almost entirely Mac) have chosen to stick with good old Word-5 and
> Excel-4.
>
> It also seems that most of the colleagues across the country from who I
> have heard feel as we do here at the Academy.  The only exceptions have
> been for those that are heavily involved in HTML.  Word-6 has a
> significant WYSIWYG channel to HTML output.  Additionally, Excel-5 is some
> help in building TABLES for HTML.
>
> That having been said, even with the HTML niceties of the newer Microsoft
> Office package, many still seem to find the older Word-5 and Excel-4 much
> friendlier, and then they use some other product (PageMill, WebWeaver,
> etc.) to move there documents to HTML.  And of course there is the "huge"
> disk space requirements of the newer Microsoft Office package.
>
> This will probably change as it becomes more and more difficult to pass
> documents back and forth to Windows when others are using WinWord-97 and
> WinExcel-97.  For right now, I'm content to be a stick in the mud and stay
> with the older products.
>
>
> ERTEL SENDS.
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>                            /       \
>                           |    *    |
>                           |#########|
>                   ===========================
>                     / Prof. John P. Ertel \
>                    /  veteran Eagle Scout  \
>       +==================================================+
>       |   jpe@nadn.navy.mil   or    ertel@nadn.navy.mil  |
>       | Physics Department, 9C     Office : 410-293-6657 |
>       |   Michelson  Rm-338           DSN :     281-6657 |
>       |    572 Holloway RD            FAX : 410-293-3729 |
>       |  U. S. Naval Academy     Research : 410-293-2759 |
>       | Annapolis, MD 21402-5026     Home : 410-757-6618 |
>       +==================================================+
>
>
> On Mon, 15 Dec 1997, Hugh Haskell wrote:
>
> > Vern Lindberg Wrote:
> > > The more general problem is tough, since Excel seems to allow soprting
by
> > > column values only, and not by rows.  The accounting spreadsheet bias
again.
> > >
> > I don't think that's correct. When you choose the sort command, you get a
> > dialog box that has the choice of rows or columns in the upper left hand
> > corner. At least that's what I get with Excel 4.0 for the Mac. No
> telling
> > what Mr. Bill has done with the new version of Excel. It wouldn't
surprise
> > me at all if he took it out of version 5. One reason why I trashed Excel
5
> > and Word 6 very shortly after I spent all that money to get them. Unless
I
> > hear something really good about their successors, that money was the
last
> > that Micro$oft will ever drag out of my wallet.
> >
> > Hugh
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ************************************************************
> > Hugh Haskell
> > <mailto://hhaskell@mindspring.com>
> >
> > The box said "Requires Windows 95 or better." So I bought a Macintosh.
> > ************************************************************