On Wed, 3 Mar 1999, Tom Zerucha wrote:
> On Wed, 3 Mar 1999, Frank S. Fejes wrote:
>
> > Both said they wanted to get the Palm V since they loved the look, feel,
> > and workability of the Palm, but both said they needed to store medium
> > to large text files and lists and that the Palm could not do it without
> > buying some third party software (which to them was not justifiable
> > considering they were about to play a bloated $450).
>
> ZDOC is free, and you can edit records, and there are other free DOC
> readers and conversion programs out there. So "cost" is not a valid
> objection. Personally I use QED (and have registered it) for both DOC
> reading and writing larger notes.
>
> Palm should consider a shareware/freeware/demoware directory on their
> installation CD and include such things, so people wouldn't have to go
> out over the internet.
This isn't the same. There's sure to be some subset of the Palm users who
have never used shareware, never used freeware, never downloaded stuff off
the Internet, never installed third-party software, etc. (A sad fact for
third-party developers, of course.)
Unless I seriously miss my mark, shareware/freeware/demoware on the CD can
only ever count as a "bonus" feature that only some of the users will get
to. In addition, Palm would need to think long and hard about "suggesting"
anyone use a specific piece of third-party software: if they do, customers
will want Palm to support the software, never mind who wrote it.
> Actually what is most lacking is a graphical memo pad. Something like
> doodle.
Or like the Newton's entry mechanism, which basically allowed doodle-like
stuff in every application. Sigh, I miss the Newton sometimes. I've got
one sitting on the shelf here, but I still miss it.
> > So, I guess the question is: when is this going to be fixed? Man, for
> > whatever reason, this seemingly small issue is losing customers and I
> > just hate to see that happen. And it's not just these two people. I've
> > heard it before:
>
> > "Doesn't it have a limitation on the size of the notes you can write?"
> >
> > <groan>
>
> Or you could simply say "no". And offer to beam them a DOC reader/writer.
Which only works for the set of folks who own IR capable Palm units who
run into someone else with an IR capable Palm unit (or at least something
capable of communicating _with_ a Palm unit) who has a freeware/shareware
DOC reader/writer that is sufficiently user-friendly for someone to
operate it without documentation, who is recognized by the first person as
having this mat�riel, and they (I'm mixing my tense here, but who cares)
successfully establish a conversation, and they complete the IR
transaction without a natural disaster, boyfriend, girlfriend or pet
interrupting. (Ain't conditional probability grand?)
This technique is useful for convincing folks, I'll grant, but won't do
much for driving sales.
> > Thanks for the soapbox...I think I'll go soak my head and take my
> > medication.
>
> Note that the MemoPad source is available as an example, but I think the
> fundamental limitation is that editable text fields are limited to 4K in
> size, and the memo pad simply takes a memo record and points the form's
> text field at it. So it would not be a simple matter of replacing 4096
> with some other number - you would have to manage the text field.
Text fields can go larger (but I assume the 4K choice was an efficiency
trade-off. The Newton gets _slow_ with large notes, not that the Newton is
doing anything in the same way as the Palm.) But the desktop cuts off
notes at 4K, currently, and that will be messy to solve. (Oh, they can
solve it _now_, all right, but that won't help folks running Windows
Desktop 1.0.)
--
Kenneth Albanowski ([EMAIL PROTECTED], CIS: 70705,126)
