TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: where's FullWrite/Akimbo software From:"Arlen P. Walker" <Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 31 Oct 1995 08:33:00 -0600
Can anyone provide any contact information for Akimbo software? We wanted
to try to get a demo copy of FullWrite to evaluate, but we can't find any
info on the company anywhere. None of the vendors we have contacted have
even heard of them, which, I suppose, doesn't bode well for the company
or the software. Nonetheless, we are curious.
Last time I saw, they had a demo on the net. Check mirrors.aol.com in both the
info-mac and the umich mac archives. That's where I got it (I think it was in
the info-mac mirror).
If it's not there, email me. I downloaded it while it was up there, and I've
still got all the info on it somewhere in my archives at home.
I used FW back when it was still Ashton-Tate's product. It was bundled free with
a memory upgrade I purchased for my SE/30. I thought it was a little bloated,
but had tremendous capabilities. That opinion came from comparing it to Word 3.
Compared to Word 6, however, it's positively slim and incredibly fast, but then
what isn't? :{>}
The Full xxxx line (Full Write and Full Impact, the spreadsheet) were definitely
ahead of their time, and pioneered a lot of the user interface tricks we take
for granted today. (A piece of trivia, for those who care: Go take a look at the
brand new user interface gimmick in Full Impact 1.0. It's a toolbar, with often
used commands represented by icons and the ability to write your own macros and
have them placed in the toolbar as well. Now go look at Excel's first toolbar,
committed about a year and a half later. Compare the order of the commands on
the toolbar. Now tell me about the wonderful inventiveness of the MS developers.
Full Impact was also the first spreadsheet to let you embed graphs and charts,
and even drawings, on the sheet itself, rather than in a separate window.)
They were new and different, so they failed (the final nail in their coffin was
probably when I adopted them for my home use -- that's the surest death sentence
I know). But their imitators live on.
Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 124
Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
----------------------------------------------
In God we trust; all others must provide data.
----------------------------------------------
Opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.
If JCI had an opinion on this, they'd hire someone else to deliver it.
