Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!asuvax!hrc!force!covertr
From: covertr@force.UUCP (Richard E. Covert)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Where's the Spectre GCR???
Summary: For Pete's Sake!!!
Message-ID: <45ea3ee9.14a1f@force.UUCP>
Date: 28 Sep 89 21:46:28 GMT
References: <9195@saturn.ucsc.edu> <45da38d0.14a1f@force.UUCP> <22585@cup.portal.com>
Organization: gte
Lines: 79

In article <22585@cup.portal.com>, Xorg@cup.portal.com (Peter Ted Szymonik) writes:
> Rich Covert>  Spectre GCR was NEVER vaporware my friend.  Just because
>               Spectre has been delayed it does not mean that it was
>               vaporware - some things do take time - like SLM804 support.
>               (and espedcially when only one person is working on the whole
>               shibang.)
> 
>               Spectre GCR is shipping as of September 21 with pre-orders
>               going out first.  New orders are backlogged until November.
> 
> Peter Szymonik
> Xorg@cup.portal.com

I try to write a simple little note saying that I read on GEnie that the GCR is
being shipped and I get flamed!! I did NOT say that the GCR was Vaporware.

But, lets be fair about this. GCR was delayed, as you admit yourself. If it was
a product of Atari, and not Gadgets By Small, wouldn't you classify it as
VaporWare?? That's because Atari has promised many products (Vaporware) which
have NEVER been marketed. But, GBS has produced every product that they have
announced, hence it wouldn't be expected for the GCR to be Vaporware, even though
it was months late. In fact, I was *TRYING*, in my own clumsy way, to help
publicize the availablity of the GCR. Not all USENET readers have GEnie accounts.
And GBS has an active GEnie RoundTable were the latest news can be read.

	So, calm down a little. I didn't mean to criticize GBS and/or the GCR.
Boy, some people just have to jump all over me because of even an implied 
criticism of Dave Small. 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DON'T READ THE REST  WARNING  BAD THINGS SAID ABOUT GBS & OTHERS !!!!

	And I don't even want to get into the Spectre support of the SLM804. Please
don't even mention SLM804 and Spectre 128 in the same article. That is one subject that
is guaranteed to start a war!! Dave Small has provide a limited (144 dpi) printer
driver for the SLM804, and has indicated that Spectre will not go 300 dpi. If you
want better printouts with a SLM804 then you need to buy the $500 UltraScript
package, and have a LARGE hard disk drive with 3 types of partitions. One native
ST partition, one Mac HFS partition and one Mac MFS partition. And have plenty of
time to transfer the PostScript files from Mac MFS and/or HFS partitions to native
ST partitions, and thence to UltraScript. That is a very clumsy way to get 300 dpu
print outs!! It would be much nicer to get 300 dpi directly from inside Spectre. Then,
I wouldn't have to spend $500 for UltraScript just to get a decent printout of a
Mac drawing!! But, if you want 300 dpi printouts on the SLM804 that is your only
alternative. Correct me if I am wrong, but that is my understanding of Spectre
support of the SLM804 laser printer.

By the way, GBS isn't the only emulator to have troubles printing on the SLM804.
Never pc speed and pc ditto II will print out on the SLM804. And both have promised
SLM804 in the Next Release. sounds like GBS last year!! But this time I am not 
buying the emulator until I see the SLM804 printing under it!! I refuse to go through
another year like the last one waiting for the promised support, and then being
disappointed with each release. I bought my Spectre 128 in Sep 1988 and to this
day I still can't print out at 300 dpi w/o being force to use UltraScript. So,
pc speed and pc ditto II will not be sold to me until I see a working SLM804
printer driver!!

	On a side note, GBS being small doesn't excise them from not making
schedules. I remember last year when Publishing Partner was released. Softlogic
was also a very small company when they announced the PP upgrade called Page Stream.
When PgS was a year late, being small didn't stop people from flaming Softlogik.
Customers expect vendors to release a product when announced, and don't care
about excuses like 'We are too small'. So, Softlogik was deservedly flamed. Softlogik
would have been better off if they hadn't announced PgS until it was ready to
ship. Even though that would have meant some lose of sales, it would have built
a better reputation for the company. Avant-Garde is an example of a responsible
company. A-G wanted like mad to release pc ditto II as soon as possible, but
they didn't send out the upgrade coupons UNTIL pc ditto II was ready to ship.
So, even though pc ditto II was months late, A-G didn't have a bunch of customers
with $$ yelling at them. A-G didn't start accepting the upgrade coupons, with the
$$, until A-G had pc ditto II. Softlogik, on the other hand, accepted upgrade
$$ for PgS as much as a year before they shipped PgS.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! END OF FLAMES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
P. S. Pete, I have given you all kinds of words in this message to twist into
whatever kind of warped meaning that you want to make. I mean, if you could 
take one word (Vaporware) and twist it, then you should have a field day with
this message!!

Richard (Enjoy yourself Pete) Covert