CABBAGES AND KINGS

     This column is going to ramble some,  so I'm warning you  now 
so you can stop reading or continue at your own risk.  That's just 
the way I feel,  like a ramblin' wreck. Anyhow, I thought I'd just 
give a few opinions on some 'ST' software that I really like.
     First  of  all I don't like WordWriter ST...  I  love  it!  I 
probably use it more than all the rest. In fact I'm using it right 
now.  Timeworks  really  outdid  itself on  this  one.  It  has  a 
spellchecker  and a Thesaurus and if that isn't  enough,  it  also 
allows  you to create your own personal dictionary.  This is  very 
handy as I use some rather archaic terms that really only  pertain 
to one small segment of the chemical industry.  I load my personal 
dictionary and I don't have to listen to the spellchecker beep  at 
me all night!  What is nice is when I do misspell a word,  instead 
of  having to type it over I just click on the proper spelling  in 
the  dictionary then click replace.  Hey look Ma  no  hands!  Well 
almost  no hands.  I showed this program to a friend at  work  and 
recommended that he purchase it as his spelling is atrocious. Well 
he took one look at it and did just that.  His comment was that it 
was even a better word processor that the mainframes at work. He's 
absolutely  right.       The Thesaurus is incredible.  Instead  of 
saying 'very' over and over again I can say:  awfully, dreadfully, 
eminently,  exceptionally, extra, extremely, mighty, most, muchly, 
notably, particularly, uncommonly, and unusually! I'm sure you get 
the  idea.  If  you want to be the first on your block  to  own  a 
premiere word processor, buy WordWriterST by Timeworks.
     I've been hearing a lot about a program called 'Speller Bee'. 
So  I  had  a  friend give me a  demonstration  of  this  spelling 
tutorial.  First  of all it's produced and marketed by First  Byte 
and it's got a real twist to it,  it talks to you.  Believe me the 
kids will just love it! When it first boots up (and it's real slow 
so be patient), you get a choice: MY WORDS, SPELL POWER, HELP, and 
QUIT.  Under MY WORDS you get to chose if the speech is off or on, 
and then you choose between making a list or going to the library. 
This is the editor feature.  The only thing I don't like about  it 
is  that the list are only ten words long and my daughter's  lists 
from school are twenty.  Well I guess that's picking nits,  and if 
that's all that's wrong I can stand it.
     Anyhow,  you  can  build all your lists and put them  in  the 
library.  As you no doubt realize speech synthesizers have trouble 
with  some words and First Byte has taken care of this  by  giving 
instructions  in  the Help file of how to use  the  'sounds  like' 
feature. If you have a word that is spelled one way and pronounced 
another  you simply tell the program it sounds like  something  it 
can pronounce. 
     After  all  this,  you can relax and use  SPELL  POWER  which 
already has lists made up. It ranges in skill level from 1st grade 
to words that would give fits to a college English  professor!!  I 
tried it and it stumped me a time or two but it was still fun  and 
done in an interesting manner. 
     Now as I promised I will ramble a bit more and talk about the 
subject of Microfloppy disks (31/2).  A friend of mine just bought 
a  new  ST and decided to purchase a box of Fuji  disks  and  then 
visit  me.  He then proceeded to ransack my public domain  library 
and D.A.C.E. disks of the month. I gladly gave him some help and a 
few disks full of programs,  but two days later he was complaining 
about how all his programs were crashed!  Well we kicked it around 
and were a little suspicious of his drive but some programs worked 
just  fine while others gave real strange errors and  results.  We 
decided  to   copy the disks on SONY no  baloney  disks...no  more 
problem  with the programs as yet.  I bought some disks that  were 
used and had programs on them already.  I thought I was real smart 
as I didn't even own an ST and already had a library.  Well it was 
a good idea , but what I wound up with were generic Fujis. I can't 
tell you how fast I lost those programs and got rid of the Fujis. 
     Well I've rambled long enough and I'm wrecked,  so until next 
time when we speak of cabbages and kings, color me gone.