Path: news.uh.edu!barrett From: u8989370@aix00.csd.unsw.oz.au (Georgios Tsoukalas) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Subject: REVIEW: Greek Workbench Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.misc Date: 16 Aug 1994 23:30:54 GMT Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett Lines: 264 Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Distribution: world Message-ID: <32ri7e$86s@masala.cc.uh.edu> Reply-To: u8989370@aix00.csd.unsw.oz.au (Georgios Tsoukalas) NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu Keywords: locale, Greek, commercial Originator: barrett@karazm.math.uh.edu PRODUCT NAME "Greek Workbench" (The actual product name is in Greek.) BRIEF DESCRIPTION WorkBench 2.1 plus all extensions such that any Workbench supporting locale is totally localized in Greek. A lot of supporting tools. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: AC Software Engineering Author: Kostas Tsaousis Address: Themistokleous 84B Nikaia 184 52 Athens GREECE Telephone: 4962494 LIST PRICE 8.000 drx. (Greek currency) I bought it on Jan 84, so pricing might have changed. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE Kickstart 37.175+ SOFTWARE None (Other than WorkBench 2.04 or above that is expected to come with your machine.) COPY PROTECTION Many tools have a popup window that closes automatically after any action occurs in the Workbench. The window includes the particulars of the purchaser. The executables seem to be serialized (multiple serial numbers). Legal action will be taken against anybody pirating!! The program installs on a hard drive. To install you follow the same process as installing any Amiga operating system (consult your original OS manual) I rate the protection as annoying, although it's only for some tools. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 3000/25, 6 MB Fast RAM, 2 MB Chip RAM. 1 internal 1.76 HD floppy Quantum 240 meg, Maxtor 120 Meg, Quantum 52 Meg internal hard drives. Standard VGA monitor. AmigaDOS 2.04 (Upgraded to 2.1 with this product) AmigaDOS 3.1 (Which I switch to on startup. 3.1 being the default) Amiga 500, 4.5 MB Fast RAM, 0.5 MB Chip RAM. 1 internal 880K floppy. Quantum 40 MB internal hard drive. GVP Series II controller AmigaDOS 2.05 (Upped to 2.1) INSTALLATION As part of the program is the actual WorkBench 2.1, it installs exactly as Commodore WorkBench 2.1 is installed. REVIEW This product comes in two forms. One is Greek WorkBench 2.1, which is an eight disk set, and the other a WB 3.0, which is a four disk set. WorkBench 2.1 is a complete Workbench and is sold to those that want to upgrade the Workbench to 2.1 as well as have the Greek extra tools. The WorkBench 3.0 is a four disk set that appears to be only the extensions to WB 3.0. It is expected that you have WorkBench 3.0 to start with. There is no difference between the two products. It seems to be a subset of the 2.1 disks. (WB 3.0 specific files included in the 2.1 release.) The reason I wanted this product is that I wanted to find out how the Greek character set was arranged on the Greek Workbench, as well as the Greek versions of the standard Amiga fonts. I got much more than I bargained for. Even though I mostly use 3.1, the 2.1 version works well under 3.1. Given there are two major components to this product I will concentrate only on the Greek extension rather than Workbench 2.1. All that I will say about WorkBench 2.1 is that it introduces locale. It allows you to make your Amiga environment use any language you wish (and is supported). The only other point to note is the inclusion of the narrator device and the speak program in this version. It appears to be the latest, and the last version included in any Workbench. It looks much nicer than the one included in WB 2.04 having only one window to type in the spoken words. It appears that normal WB 2.1 didn't even include a narrator device. The extra diskettes that have Greek names include updates to the Workbench that can be installed in both WB 2.1 and 3.1. They are a variety of tools. After the full installation, all menus appear in Greek. The error command in the Shell, the requesters, and virtually everything on the Workbench is totally in Greek. It appears to be a very detailed job. It's an unfamiliar environment as there is an argument among all non-English speaking countries: should technical terms be translated or transliterated? A lot of terms tend to be very long, as it seems a direct translation ends up being a long word compared to the familiar few letter words in English. To me the locale was a novelty that wore off pretty quick. I was not disappointed though as that's not what I wanted from the package, and English is more natural to me when it comes to technical terms. There are many other tools that assist in using the Greek language in conjunction with the English language. First, note the peculiarity of the Greek language. The Greek character set is almost totally different from the English one. As a result, the current solution for using Greek was to use a Symbol font. The problem with that was that I wanted accents, as well as the fact the font selection was limited. I wanted to swap from English to Greek the way the Macintosh achieves it. That is by pressing Command-Space you can flick between Greek <-> English keyboard. In the Amigas case, with the use of a commodity, Amiga-space-bar achieves the same result. The Greek characters are encoded in the high 128 positions of the ASCI set. There are also other commodities that configure the Amiga depending on what keyboard is active. Menu keys are mapped such that while in Greek mode, all keyboard short-cuts are still available. For example, typing Amiga-C would copy a selected item to the clipboard. While the Greek keyboard is active, what you would actually be pressing is Amiga-Psi, a Greek character. It all works great though. It's supported by all programs; i.e., PageStream and excellence! In my WBStartup I have: MenuMapSwapper, so that short-cut keys are swapped. KeyMapSwapper, so that the KeyMap is swapped. MenuKeySwapper, so that menu keys are swapped. MenumapAnalyser, a tool that shows the complete character set such that any character can be selected and the key combination to get to it is shown. In the package are many printer drivers. They are the same Amiga printer drives but they include an Elot standard as that appears to be the IBM standard character set for Greek printers. I am not sure if this is part of the AmigaDOS 2.1 package in Greece or the Software Engineering package. Also included is a program that can convert documents from different character arrangements that are written in Greek. Along with it are included many different filters. Another program converts file names written in Greek by another standard to the current one. Looking into my L:filesystem_transl/ directory, I found the following extra files among the standard Amiga files. I don't know how to use them other than they are used by CrossDOS and are selectable by a configuration screen in CrossDOS. GrIBM.crossdos GrMAC.crossdos GrWindows.crossdos The standard bitmap fonts like topazgr, perlgr, rubygr and the others have Greek characters in the high ASCI 128 positions, otherwise they are the standard Amiga fonts. With the use of the FF program the system is patched such that all programs that insist on using topaz can use the Greek font topazgr in them. Also included are the following fonts for popular application programs: dpaint.font (Deluxepaint 4) Scala.font (Scala) SWScrFontA (FinalCopy) SWScrFontB (FinalCopy) Also included are two Compugraphic fonts, CSTimesGR and CSTimesTrimvirateGR. They are not as good quality as the original CSTimes and CSTriumvirate. DOCUMENTATION The documentation is neat, written in Greek from cover to cover. I didn't get the WorkBench 2.1, manuals but the WorkBench 2.1 software is included with the permission of Commodore Greece. There is no index but there are only 29 pages I hardly read. I preferred to work my way through it as I am familiar with Workbench. LIKES It's a great value for money. Considering the small market, a lot of professional effort has gone into the design of the product. Tools conform to the style guide. The labels and the manual are nice. There are many different tools in it. DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS The protection ... oh that protection. Upon start-up I get a small window opening up noting my name and passport number. The reason being that is they wanted my ID number to serialize my copy, I only had a passport number. Well I needed it, I gave it to them :-) But the window vanishes immediately. Greek locale and the keyboard should have been supplied by Commodore Greece. As the equivalent is done so by Macintosh Greece for free. I have no complaints though as it was good value for money. A little complaint is the box it comes in. It's just a VHS video casing. It sort of loses some of the professional look it deserves. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS I have not used and I don't know of any other such product on the Amiga. Although there should be for other languages. On the Macintosh computer I have used a patch that swaps the keyboard and works with Amax II very well. I know of a Greek desktop for the Macintosh (I am comparing Greek computer interfaces here) It should work just as well although I don't think it has the power of local. There also exists a Greek Windows 3.1. BUGS None found. Only one not directly related with the product. The FF program included (and available in PD) that patches the system to change the original topaz font does not work in 3.1. VENDOR SUPPORT I have had no reason to contact the vendor. It's a long distance call to Greece which I don't think I will be doing. I have had no need, though. WARRANTY 30 days on the magnetic media. CONCLUSIONS I am very impressed by this product. It does much more than I wanted so I am pleased. I give it a rating to 4 out of 5. An extra 1/2 would be given if it wasn't for the copy protection. I do understand it though as Greece is quite notorious for piracy. COPYRIGHT NOTICE This review is copyright such that Dan Barrett the Moderator can do as he pleases. My guess is PD but he can make money out of it if he wishes. :-) (Good luck Dan) [MODERATOR'S NOTE: I designate this review as freely distributable under the distribution conditions found in the "Introduction to comp.sys.amiga.reviews" article posted monthly in this newsgroup. - Dan] Georgios Tsoukalas u8989370@csdvax.csd.unsw.oz.au cumulus.csd.unsw.oz.au --- Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu Moderator mail: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu Anonymous ftp site: math.uh.edu, in /pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews