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3]LOGISTIK INTEGRATED SOFTWARE LACKS LUSTER BUT NOT POWER
Review by CHERYL PETERSON
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Progressive Peripherals and Software 
464 Kalamath St. 
Denver, CO 80204 
303/825-4144

Operating System: AmigaDOS and Intuition for Amiga version. 
Media: Furnished on 3.5-inch diskette. 
Copy Protection: Program requires "dongle" (joystick-port plug-in
     device) to run.
Required Peripherals: Color monitor. 
Optional Items: Printer. 
System used for test: 512K Commodore Amiga with 1080 monitor, 
     external disk drive and Epson RX-80+ printer. 
Retail Price: $149.98 

     Logistik is an integrated software package that combines
spreadsheet, database, graphics and time management. In
capabilities, it rivals or excels dBase III, SuperCalc, Lotus 
1-2-3 and Excel. While it offers many of the same functions as
those well-known programs, it's hampered by not taking full 
advantage of the Amiga's Intuition interface.
     Run through the Command Line Interface, Logistik uses
windows to present information but doesn't support any menus. 
Everything is accomplished through keyboard commands, with 
function keys assigned to the most commonly performed tasks.
     Logistik also does not support a mouse, so you must use the
GOTO command or arrow keys to move around. For those who count
on the convenience of "point and click," this comes as a rude 
shock. What really hurts, though, is that the cursor is still
on-screen and active. You can move it around and point to items,
but nothing happens when you hit the buttons. The only thing you
really can do with the mouse is pull down the whole window so you 
can see what's behind it or move windows from front to back. 
This is necessary since graphs are created in their own windows.
     Once you get past being totally dependent on the keyboard,
the program is impressive. As with SuperCalc, many commands are
accessed by using the "/" character. A protection feature can be
used to lock areas of data that you do not want modified.
     Logistik handles database or spreadsheet arrangements. The
list of functions it supports is almost amazing and includes 
time, calendar, mathematical, logical, statistical, database, 
financial and special functions. All standard math operators are
supported.
     With auto commands and macros, you can program some
complicated functions. This is almost a necessity considering
the complexity of creating graphs. Macros may be incorporated
into automated sequences.
     Logistik creates numerous graphs and can write labels on
them in nine different fonts. Chart types include individual
pie, common pie, clustered bar, stacked bar, line, step, spread, 
tick, scattergram and Gantt. A separate category called
"wordslides" can generate text illustrations or explanations. 
The graphing functions support ten text fonts, ten line types, 
ten hatching types and ten special characters for markers. Graph
pages can even include footnotes and annotations. 
     The manual is interesting, informative and involved. With a
program this size, it needs to be. But the supplier should have
done a more comprehensive rework of it for the Amiga. As it
stands, most file and disk related information is presented in 
MS-DOS terms. Some commands that may be accessed using special
keys on the Amiga keyboard aren't documented in the manual. 
However, the manual has good glossary and appendix sections with 
error message explanations. A command summary card is well
organized and helpful. 
     There are good samples on a second disk provided with the
package. These include a sample database, spreadsheet, time
sheet and graphs.
     The disks are not copy-protected, but a "dongle" that plugs
into the second joystick port is required to run the programs. 
Three versions of the program are provided. The smallest
requires 512K of memory and makes extensive use of overlays. 
Even so, generating even a couple graphs can exhaust memory and 
will crash the operating system when using version 1.1 of 
Kickstart and Workbench. Using Amiga multitasking is nearly
impossible with only 512K available.
     The other two program versions use expanded memory. Because
they do not need to access the disk to get overlays, they run 
faster. One offers much higher screen resolution as well. I
only have 512K available, so I wasn't able to test these versions 
and have to take the supplier's word that they do work.
     Logistik is a complicated but versatile program. For the
power user, this program may be the only way to go, since 
companies like Ashton-Tate, Lotus and Computer Associates ignore 
the Amiga. For less than $150, Logistik offers features found in
the most expensive packages on other computers. 
     Those addicted to the Amiga user interface and not needing
as much power may want to look elsewhere. If you can live with a
return to "stone knives and bearskins," though, this is a great 
program. 
     At the time of this review, the product was in transition
from "Logistix" to "Logistik," owing to trademark conflicts. It
is possible the software may be found under either name on dealer
shelves.

    This article originally appeared in CompuServe's Online Today.

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