========================================================================= Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1993 09:07:41 ECT Reply-To: Indexer's Discussion Group Sender: Indexer's Discussion Group From: "Rollie Littlewood . . . (608) 26 2-7385" Subject: Indexing software which runs on Macintosh computers ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- It certainly appears that all the serious, commercially-available indexing software has been written for MS-DOS microcomputers. I don't understand why this is the case, but it seems to be true. For those of you who must use a Macintosh for indexing, there are a couple of solutions to the problem of a lack of Macintosh indexing software. Both of the solutions I can suggest will make a Macintosh temporarily pretend it is an IBM-PC/AT (or better). There is a family of software products called "SoftPC ..." published by Insignia Solutions. The members of the family differ in how fancy of a Macintosh you have to have and how fancy of a PC-compatible you want to emulate. These programs are in the $200-300 range, as I remember. In my experience, they work very well but are rather slow. By "working well," I mean that every program I have tried to use with them has run (correctly, no less!). If you go this route, I would buy the most powerful version that can run on your particular Macintosh, so that you can come as close as possible to getting acceptable performance. There is also a family of hardware solutions sold by Orange Micro; I have not used this product--only seen ads. I have forgot the name of this product line, but I could look it up if any one is interested. This type of solution is considerably more expensive (in the $1000 range), but I would expect it to run MS-DOS programs much faster than SoftPC does. I think that the Orange Micro products actually put an 80386 or an 80486 CPU inside your Macintosh, in addition to the normal Macintosh CPU. Since it is now relatively easy to transfer files back and forth between MS-DOS disks and Macintosh disks, I would expect that one could easily transfer the output from any MS-DOS indexing program to the Macintosh word processing program of their choice, if need be. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rollie Littlewood (608) 26 2-7385 InterNet : RLittlewood@MACC.Wisc.Edu University of Wisconsin-Madison BitNet : RLittlewood@WiscMACC Institute for Molecular Virology or LittlewoodPK@WiscPSL & Laboratory of Molecular Biology Campus DECNet : WIRCS2::RLittlewood 1525 Linden Drive Madison WI 53706-1596 FAX : (608) 26 2-7414 ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1993 13:08:06 ECT Reply-To: Indexer's Discussion Group Sender: Indexer's Discussion Group From: "Kate McCain" Subject: Re: Indexing software which runs on Macintosh computers In-Reply-To: Message of Thu, 1 Apr 1993 09:07:41 ECT from ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Although I cannot speak to the specific instance of PC-based indexing software running on SoftPc on a Mac, I have had good luck with other plain vanilla DOS programs. Essentially, you are giving your Mac a pre-frontal lobotomy [ 8-) ] -- partitioning off some megs of RAM on the hard disk and reconfiguring them to pretend that they are a PC hard disk. Some notes follow: 1. "Get the most advanced version." AGREE up to the point that you need to make sure that you have enough spare RAM lying around. The basic SoftPC is SLOOOOOOOWWWW. 2. I hope that the installation directions have improved. Getting the original SoftPc installed on my MacII si hard drive was a real bitch. Figuring out which lettered drive was which was VERY confusing. NB -- Drive "E" is the Mac accessible desktop. A great place to leave ASCII/TEXT copies of files. See Below. 3. Give yourself enough RAM in the PC drive to do work. 5 meg is nice. 4. Be sure that you have a Mac drive that will read IBM-formatted floppies (5.25 or 3.5). If you have a "superdrive" you are OK. If you are running an older MacII, a Mac Plus or some other ancient machine, you are in trouble. 5. One real advantage is the ability to move between applications & environments. In the directions for SoftPC you are likely to see instructions for defining what kind of "text" file you want as the default when you save to Drive "E" (the Mac hard-drive desktop). Saving as TEXT will allow you to read the ASCII files directly using MS Word. [NB -- the word "text" is case sensitive.] 6. I will be very interested to hear about successful ventures in this amphibious environment. Kate McCain "bibliometrics R us" College of Information Studies Drexel University ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1993 13:08:24 ECT Reply-To: Indexer's Discussion Group Sender: Indexer's Discussion Group From: "Rollie Littlewood . . . (608) 26 2-7385" Subject: details, follow-up on earlier message ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- The product name is OrangePC. It is a NuBus card. It apparently contains an 80486 CPU on the card. OrangeMicro claims it runs 16 times faster than SoftAT (which used to be the top-of-the-line member of the SoftPC family). OrangeMicro can be reached at (714)779-2772. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rollie Littlewood (608) 26 2-7385 InterNet : RLittlewood@MACC.Wisc.Edu University of Wisconsin-Madison BitNet : RLittlewood@WiscMACC Institute for Molecular Virology or LittlewoodPK@WiscPSL & Laboratory of Molecular Biology Campus DECNet : WIRCS2::RLittlewood 1525 Linden Drive Madison WI 53706-1596 FAX : (608) 26 2-7414 ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1993 13:08:42 ECT Reply-To: Indexer's Discussion Group Sender: Indexer's Discussion Group From: VANFOSEN Subject: Re: CQ's WID Index ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- I deleted the original tirade about this index but as I was reading it I was amused to note the writer mentioned his or her "authority" being threatened, because, I assume, he/she couldn't find the entry the first time in the index. So is this problem about Authority or the index itself? If I can't find something the first time in an index, I don't look on this as a personal failure--it has nothing to do with me, per se. If I say anything at all to the patron, I say, "Well, THEY (the publishers) didn't put this under..., let's try something else." No big deal. Let's hear it for Librarian self esteem! ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1993 13:09:10 ECT Reply-To: Indexer's Discussion Group Sender: Indexer's Discussion Group From: "Nancy C. Mulvany" Subject: Indexing Software for Macintosh ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Re: Indexing Software for Macintosh Given that my company is a publisher of indexing software (Macrex), I usually stay out of program-specific disussions in order to not cross the "commerical interest line." However, since we are often asked why we do not publish a Macintosh version of our software, I think perhaps I can shed some light on this issue. Given the name of our program, Macrex, many people naturally assume that it is Macintosh software. Distribution of Macrex, which was originally written for CP/M systems, predates the commercial distribution of the Apple Macintosh. Several years ago we decided not to produce a Macintosh version of the program because we felt it would not be profitable. The initial hardware investment alone would be prohibitive especially since some of the hardware would be purchased in the UK where prices are more outrageous than they are here. The cost of software development tools would also be very expensive since an entire new set of tools would have to be used for development on the Macintosh platform. Of course, such costs would be worthwhile if we felt that there was a large user base for the product. Since we must deal with an international market, we keep an eye on unit sales statistics for personal computers worldwide. The 1992 unit sales data that I have seen still places Apple in the 20% and below market share. A few weeks ago I heard a report on the radio that said that Apple has surpassed (or caught up to) IBM in PC sales. What does that mean? Not much. IBM is not much of leader in personal computer sales worldwide by a long shot. The bottom line here is that the largest personal computer user base is the Intel 286/386/486 platform. One other thing to keep in mind is that the publishers of dedicated indexing software are not huge, multinational corporations. There are not cadres of programmers writing code for these programs. There are no venture capitalists throwing 7-figure sums of money at these small companies so that they can invest in new product development. There are no "big players" in the dedicated indexing software market; there are only individuals trying to market their products. The "big players" don't think there's a market for this type of software. The "big players" have brought us the crippled, unsophisticated embedded indexing software tools that we see in word processing and desktop publishing packages today. So, when one of the "little players" bails out of a small, niche market it should come as no surprise. The surprise, in my mind, was that one of the publsihers actually tried to make a go of it in the Macintosh market. Nancy Mulvany Bayside Indexing Service North American Publisher of the Macrex Indexing Program ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1993 16:15:04 ECT Reply-To: Indexer's Discussion Group Sender: Indexer's Discussion Group Comments: Warning -- original Sender: tag was cweaver@CARSON.U.WASHINGTON.EDU From: Carolyn Weaver Subject: Re: Indexing Software for Macintosh In-Reply-To: <9304011813.AA00541@carson.u.washington.edu> ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Thanks, Nancy, for the comments from the developer perspective. It makes a lot of sense, particularly now that I have bitten the bullet and acquired a DOS machine strictly for indexing. Do the same economics apply for developing a Windows product? Seems like Windows would make the transition for MAC users much easier - not to mention providing the capability of working with different views of the database at the same time, facilitating copying, etc. Carolyn Weaver e-mail: cweaver@u.washington.edu voice: 206/643-1614 ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1993 16:15:27 ECT Reply-To: Indexer's Discussion Group Sender: Indexer's Discussion Group From: Carol Roberts Subject: Re: CQ's WID Index ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- >----------------------------Original message---------------------------- >I deleted the original tirade about this index but as I was reading it I >was amused to note the writer mentioned his or her "authority" being >threatened, because, I assume, he/she couldn't find the entry the first >time in the index. So is this problem about Authority or the index itself? > If I can't find something the first time in an index, I don't look on this >as a personal failure--it has nothing to do with me, per se. If I say >anything at all to the patron, I say, "Well, THEY (the publishers) didn't >put this under..., let's try something else." No big deal. Let's hear it >for Librarian self esteem! I don't remember whose "tirade" it was, but the tone, from where I'm sitting, was tongue-in-cheek. -- Carol Roberts Publications Services Cornell University cjr2@cornell.edu 607 255-9454 Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty. ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1993 16:15:53 ECT Reply-To: Indexer's Discussion Group Sender: Indexer's Discussion Group From: Carol Roberts Subject: MacIndex ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Just out of curiosity, has anybody tried, say, contacting MicroSoft about indexing software for the Mac? I already know what they can call it (see subject field)! ;-) If nobody else has called them, I will. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm a little nervous about investing money in IBM-related stuff, given IBM's current fiscal crisis. And spending $300 or so for "simulation" software *plus* another $200 or whatever to get my Mac to pretend to be an IBM just goes against the grain. For the moment, I'm using Word 5.1 for my indexing. It may sound primitive, but I'm not doing enough indexing yet for it to be a real pain. Maybe by the time I'm ready to go full-time, there will be some MacAlternatives! -- Carol Roberts Publications Services Cornell University cjr2@cornell.edu 607 255-9454 Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty. ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1993 08:59:00 ECT Reply-To: Indexer's Discussion Group Sender: Indexer's Discussion Group Comments: Resent-From: Charlotte Skuster Comments: Originally-From: Jean Dartnall From: Charlotte Skuster Subject: Re: MacIndex In-Reply-To: <199304012201.AA08049@jculib.jcu.edu.au> ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- This message was originally submitted by lbjad@JCU.EDU.AU to the INDEX-L list at BINGVMB. If you simply forward it back to the list, it will be distributed with the paragraph you are now reading being automatically removed. If you edit the contributions you receive into a digest, you will need to remove this paragraph before mailing the results to the list. Finally, if you need more information from the author of this message, you should be able to do so by simply replying to this note. ------------------ Message requiring your approval (6 lines) ------------------ I've used Filemaker software on my Mac as an aid to preparing indexes. It's not as sophisticated as some of the IBM compatible software but it's more useful than a plain word processing package and allows me to stay with my friendly Mac. Jean ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1993 11:25:39 ECT Reply-To: Indexer's Discussion Group Sender: Indexer's Discussion Group From: Charlotte Skuster Subject: technical problems It appears that the listserv at bingvmb seems to be experiencing some problems. Some of you have sent messages to index-l that were rejected for reasons that I cannot explain. Other discussion lists that are run from this campus are having the same sort of difficulties. If you have a burning desire to "talk" to the group, you can send the message directly to me and I will forward it. Otherwise, hold your thoughts until I let you know that the problem has been fixed. Thanks for your patience. Charlotte Skuster Skuster@bingvmb =========================================================================