TITLE : News on Pagestream 3.0 TYPE : Software News DATE : 19-Apr-94 AUTHOR : Kevin W Davidson (Help from Charles Figueiredo ) PageStream 3.0 News Update -------------------------- Here are some answers to commonly asked questions... "When is PageStream3 going to be released?" Soon we hope. We currently estimate 6 weeks. We can't give a firm date, because we won't ship it until it's ready. "Why isn't it shipping now? How come your initial estimates were so far off?" Yes, PageStream3 has taken longer to program than we originally estimated. We want the new PageStream3 framework to last us quite a few years so we don't have to do this major of rewrite for a long time. After we had announced 3.0, we realized that it would be easier to update in the future if we changed some of its underlying structure. This delayed the project by 3-4 months but will be worth it in the long run. We're also going to extremes to ensure that future features can be added easily. Designing everything so that it will stand the test of time takes a lot of work. "What do you mean by 'underlying structure?'" The Amiga lacks some professional-level development tools such as interface designers. After we announced 3.0, we realized that our interface would be hard to modify in the future given the way it was implemented. We decided that it would be better if we took a step back and designed good tools. While we were doing this, we spun off all the non-program specific code into a separate program called app.library. By this we mean the code that opens windows, allocates colors, draws gadgets, handles menu and mouse events, etc. If we want to write another Amiga program in the future, we will not have to duplicate this code because the two programs can share app.library. In fact, this is how BME 2.0 will work. It's a very small program because it doesn't duplicate this code. BME 2.0 also inherits a lot of great PageStream3 features by using app.library. "When can we get a demo?" We're still writing code, so we're not ready to upload a demo yet. We will probably upload a beta demo when the manuals are at the printers. "How do I get to be a PageStream betatester?" We have hundreds of betatester applications on file. Obviously, if everyone was a betatester, we'd never sell any copies. We limit the testing team to 25 people. When one of them leaves us, we choose a new one from the applications on file. If you want an application, write to tech support, but we can't promise anything obviously. "Will bug 'X' in PageStream 2.2 be fixed in 3.0?" There won't be any 2.2 bugs still in 3.0, because we rewrote PageStream from scratch for this version. It would be impossible for it to have a 2.2 bug in it. Maybe it will have new bugs, but no old bugs. "New bugs? You'd ship it with bugs?" No, we'd never intentionally ship a program with serious bugs. But all software has bugs, it's just a question of how serious. Even the operating system in your computer and the programming language we use to develop PageStream have bugs. When we've stomped all the serious bugs in 3.0, we'll fix all the minor bugs. When we think it's ready to ship, we'll ship it. At this time, we're still writing code, so bugs are not holding up the release. In fact, 3.0 is the most bug-free program we've ever written. "Can't you get it done faster?" We're working 12-16 hour days on PageStream3. It's probably the most complex program ever written for the Amiga, but we're getting close. We'll ship it as soon as we can. If it's pretty well ready to go but there are still some non-serious loose ends like some ARexx get commands, we may leave them out and add them a month later in a free update. (We would never charge for that of course.) We'll continue our policy of free online patches so that you can get the latest maintenance release as soon as we have it ready. "I paid for my upgrade by check. I noticed that my check was just cashed. Does this mean my copy has been shipped?" No. Checks expire after 6 months, unfortunately. Many of the checks we've received began to expire near the end of last year. We returned them to the customers along with a letter asking them to send another check or to choose another billing option. The vast majority of the checks are only for $5 or $15, and a number of customers complained that it would have been easier for them if we had just cashed them. Since we think we're about 6 weeks away from shipping, we decided to follow their advice and cash the checks as they were about to expire. These orders will be marked for shipping so that they will be at the head of the queue. It will take us a while to fill all the orders, so these ones will get shipped first. If your check is cashed, and you object to this, please contact our sales office and we will cheerfully refund you your money. You can then select another billing option. However, you will no longer be at the head of the shipping queue. As well, if you live outside the United States or Canada, we have begun processing foreign credit cards. We're not a huge mail order operation with computerized credit card billing. While we're one of the largest Amiga software companies, we're still a small family owned business. Most of our business is done with distributors, not end-users. Filling thousands of end-user orders completely overwhelms us. We must process all credit cards manually, so they are getting a head start on the foreign orders in-between phone calls. A large percentage of the card numbers are no longer valid, or they are over their limit, so we must contact the customers and request another billing option, and this takes quite a bit of time for foreign orders. These orders are being marked for shipping, and are being moved to the head of the queue. Once again, if you object to this, please contact our sales office and we will credit your card and unmark your order for shipping. "How fast will the orders be sent out once you begin shipping?" It will take us a couple of weeks but we'll drag the programmers away from their computers and make them help clean out the backlog. That's why we've started on processing orders now. We're folding boxes, collating papers, labeling disks and doing everything else we can to be as ready as possible when the disks begin coming out of the disk duplicators. When the disks are ready we'll stuff them in boxes and mail them to you as fast as we can. "Why is the upgrade $125? I only paid $165 for it in the first place." PageStream 3.0 retails for $395, an increase of $95 over the previous version. The equivalent Mac and PC programs cost $895-995. With this upgrade, you will not only get a brand-new version of PageStream with a ton of new features, you will also get PANTONE(R) colors (which requires a huge royalty on every copy sold), a new manual, BME2, PageLiner2, new fonts and new clip art. We've spent two years working on this project, and contrary to popular belief, you don't get rich programming Amiga productivity software. We write PageStream because we love doing it. We think it's fun to write cool software like PageStream3. We're just a bunch of people who think writing a great DTP program for the Amiga is a fun way to make a living. If we could charge less, we would, but $125 is a very fair price considering the time and effort we've put into it. Remember that the Amiga market is very tiny compared to the Windows and Mac markets, and we have to spend at least as much time developing our products as they do, and we sell very few copies compared to them. "What's new in PageStream 3.0?" Please download the preview package we have uploaded. It contains screenshots, a feature comparison, and other information. "I don't have PageStream 2.2. Should I buy it now with the free upgrade, or wait until 3.0 is released before buying?" There are five ways you can buy PageStream 3.0: - buy a full copy now (comes in normal box with slipcover) from your dealer. This comes with a free upgrade to 3.0. (You just pay shipping.) - buy a blowout copy now (comes in a thin brown box, upgrade info on box.) This doesn't come with a free upgrade. You must pay $125 plus shipping. - order a competitive upgrade to PageStream 2.2 from us (comes in the normal box, but we're out of slipcovers, sorry) for $175 plus shipping. You must send in a photocopy of your ProPage or Final Writer manual title page within 30 days of receiving your order. For an extra shipping charge you will receive a free upgrade to PageStream 3.0. (This is equivalent to ordering a full copy from a dealer.) - order a competitive upgrade to PageStream 3.0 from us. Same as above but doesn't include 2.2 now. Your choice, same price. Price will rise to $225 shortly after we begin shipping PageStream 3.0. - order a full copy of PageStream 3.0 at retail price from us for $395 plus shipping. As well, registered users of other Soft-Logik programs can purchase discounted versions of PageStream 3.0. You will receive mail on this when we start shipping. Important note! We're out of 2.2 slipcovers, and we can't justify printing anymore for the short time remaining before 3.0 ships. So if you're planning on waiting until the last moment before buying a full copy from your dealer or mail order company, they may not have any full copies left. 3.0 has a list price $95 higher than 2.2, so when its full copies hit the street, the street price will rise accordingly. If you want a 2.2 full copy with free upgrade (which is usually the best deal), try and find a copy now before they're gone. We've already turned down orders from a couple of mail order companies, and they're out of stock, so find a dealer with a copy and get it now. Hopefully, if you ordered 3.0 you'll have a copy in your hands in 6 weeks. We'll keep you posted and let you know when we actually start shipping out orders. Until then, please be patient---we're doing our best to give you the best possible DTP program for the Amiga. OTHER QUESTIONS --------------- "When is a new version of Art Expression going to be released?" Version 1.04 will be the last 1.x version because the developer we licensed it from is no longer working for us. We hope (no promises yet) to do a new version of Art Expression after we get PageStream 3.0 shipping. We're behind schedule on PageStream3, so please forgive us for not wanting to announce anything new for Art Expression now. ;-) The current version of AE is still a great buy, except that it has problems with Preferences printing. If you want a copy of AE, you better buy it soon---we'll be out of stock of Art Expression in about a month and will not print more 1.0x copies. "What's new with TypeSmith?" Version 2.02 should be released shortly. This is a maintenance upgrade that fixes all known problems and adds a few new minor features. As far as maintenance upgrades go, this is a big one. It will be available online as a patch from 2.0 and 2.01. VEM (our publisher in France) is also ready to start shipping a translated version of TypeSmith in France. "Will you be slacking off now that Gold Disk has stopped development on Amiga software?" While competitive pressure is great for development, it won't stop us from pushing PageStream as far as we can. We enjoy making PageStream a better program, and with or without Gold Disk, it will only continue to get better. That being said, we'll probably miss them. (Competition is fun.) However, we didn't regard ProPage as serious competition for this version. We're competing with the best Mac and PC programs now. "What's going to happen to PageStream given the things going on at Commodore?" We don't depend on Commodore to sell PageStream. (Thank goodness. ;-) Even if Commodore were to be destroyed by an asteroid hitting their headquarters, we'd still work on Amiga software. As long as we can pay the bills by writing Amiga software, we'll write it. Remember, we have a huge investment in the Amiga in terms of hardware, software, experience, contacts and name recognition. "I'm not sure if I should buy an upgrade to PageStream 3.0 since Commodore isn't doing too well." Did your computer receive some sort of secret signal from Commodore HQ to make it stop working? The usefulness of your computer doesn't depend on Commodore. You use a computer for its software, not for the computer. And you can't buy PageStream 3.0 for any other computer. "I'm not sure if I should buy Final Writer, Wordworth or PageStream." Final Writer and Wordworth are word processors, not desktop publishers. They have some low-end DTP-like features such as drawing tools, but that doesn't make them desktop publishers anymore than PageStream's word processing features make it a word processor. If you only need to put text and simple graphics on a page with limited control over the layout, buy a word processor. If you need to combine text and graphics without limitations, buy a desktop publisher. If you need to do both, buy both. "I want to use PageStream at work and at home. Do I have to buy two copies?" Only if someone will be using both at the same time. See below for more information on the software license. "Can I sell my old copy of PageStream 2.2 when I receive 3.0?" NO. When you buy a program such as PageStream, you are actually buying a license to use the software. You have purchased a single-user license. You do not receive a new license when you buy an upgrade. If you want to sell your copy of 2.2 you must purchase a new copy of the program instead of an upgrade. Selling the old copy is a violation of your license and is considered software piracy. If you do so and the buyer contacts us for support or an upgrade, we will tell him/her that they have a pirated copy and that they must seek a refund from you. We recently translated our software license from legalese (that weird lawyer language) to English. Here it is: "SINGLE USER SOFTWARE LICENSE: You have purchased a single-user software license. One person may use this program on multiple machines, or, multiple people can use this program on one machine, but multiple people may not use this program on multiple machines simultaneously. If you upgrade to a newer version, you still have only one software license and registration number. You cannot sell your old version to another person." "I don't live in the United States or Canada. How do I buy PageStream and other Soft-Logik programs?" Amiga software companies usually team up with companies in other countries to market their products. These companies translate our programs, sell and market them, and provide local tech support. We receive a royalty for each copy they sell. When you buy one of their copies of our programs, you are registered with them---we have no record of you as a customer. You must purchase upgrades from them and call them for tech support. (We will provide you with online tech support on GEnie, CompuServe, Interet, Portal and our BBS, because we're nice guys, but if you want phone, mail or fax support, you must contact them.) If you live in one of the countries in which we have a publisher, we cannot sell to you because the publisher has an exclusive contract for that territory. If you own an English language Soft-Logik Publishing product that is registered with us (it came with a registration card with our address on it) then we will of course provide you with tech support and will continue to upgrade your copy. GERMANY: DTM Dreiherrenstein 6a 6200 Weisbaden-Auringen Germany tel: 49 6127 4065 fax: 49 6127 66276 FRANCE: VEM 14 rue de Bois Sauvage 91055 EVRY Cedex France tel: 33 1 64 97 96 54 fax: 33 1 69 91 19 25 SWEDEN: ProComp Box 46 S-340 36 Moheda Sweden tel: 46 472 71270 fax: 46 472 71680 SPAIN: PixelSoft c/. Felipe II, n.3 Bis 34004 Palencia Spain tel: 34 88 71 27 00 fax: 34 88 71 28 28 POLAND: Alfin VI. Swietojanska 2/7 Bydgoszcz 85-017 Poland tel: 48 52 22 6403 fax: 48 52 22 6403 DENMARK: Betafon Istedgade 79+110 1650 Kobenhave V. Denmark tel: 31 31 0273 fax: 31 31 1498 ITALY: RS Ricerca Via B. Buozzi, 6 40057-Cadriano (Bologna) Italy tel: 39 51 765563 fax: 39 51 765568 TURKEY: Perka Macka cad. Ralli Apt. 59/3 Tesvikiye IST Turkey tel: 90 1 2311550 fax: 90 1 2481912 PRICING MAY VARY IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. EACH PUBLISHER MAY HAVE DIFFERENT UPGRADE POLICIES. CONTACT THE PUBLISHER FOR MORE INFORMATION. "Gee, will I have to wait forever to get my copy of PageStream3 since the publisher will be translating it? I'd rather just get the English version right away." Our publishers will make the English language version available to their customers if you'd rather get it right away. There will probably be an extra charge for this because they will also send you the translated version when it is done. But this will ensure you get PageStream 3.0 at the same time everybody else does. Thanks for supporting the Amiga market by buying our products. If you pirate our programs by copying them or giving them to a friend, you'll be helping to kill the Amiga. The market is very small, and the loss of sales to piracy deters development of more programs like PageStream 3.0. People who would never think of stealing something from a store but think nothing of copying a program from a friend are thieves and hypocrites. We don't use a dongle on our programs because we hate those things. We trust you not to pirate our program; please honor our trust. HOW TO CONTACT SOFT-LOGIK PUBLISHING: ------------------------------------ SOFT-LOGIK PUBLISHING CORPORATION 11131F South Towne Square St. Louis, MO 63123 USA 1-800-829-8608 sales 314-894-8608 sales 314-894-3280 fax GEnie: type SOFTLOGIK (or m385) email SL-TECH CompuServe: type GO AMIGAVEN email 71333,1374 Internet: email tech@slpc.com Portal: type GO SOFTLOGIK email SOFT-LOGIK BBS: modem 314-894-0057 (->14400 baud, 24 hours) Kevin Davidson, Asst. Moderator AmigaZone Vendor Support - PORTAL SOFT-LOGIK BBS (PCP MOSLO) (314) 894-0057