AppleWorks/ClarisWorks Dies Quietly 220
Several readers noted that Apple has quietly discontinued AppleWorks, in the week that the company's spreadsheet solution, Numbers, debuted in its iWork suite. The AppleWorks website now directs users to the iWork section of the Apple site. AppleWorks was introduced — before the Macintosh — in 1984 and began its long twilight as abandonware in 1999.
memories (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Finally. (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, yeah. Appleworks hadn't really seen a significant update in, what, more than 5 years? I was always surprised to learn that it was still being sold.
I'd see it on the shelf at BestBuy and think, "Really?! Appleworks? Do people still buy that, and if they do, are they really pissed off when they figure out how out-of-date it is?"
iWork and no ODF support (Score:2, Interesting)
Pity (Score:5, Interesting)
Its integrated approach, with text processing, spreadsheet, drawing and database modules in a single application program was rather elegant. For quickly throwing together a document that needs all of those, I still haven't seen anything that beats it.
Re:memories (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:memories (Score:5, Interesting)
Sporadic
Good thing they kept it around. (Score:4, Interesting)
Will the new iWork suite open old Claris/Appleworks documents? It would be nice if they did. I haven't played with the new iWork apps at all (I realized that I don't need a word-processor for most of what I now do, and just use TextMate to butcher ASCII instead).
Re:Good thing they kept it around. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Finally. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Finally. (Score:1, Interesting)
My biggest complaints with numbers:
Re:Pity (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:NeoOffice? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:pity the foo (Score:3, Interesting)
Meanwhile, Lotus Notes 8 is being released tomorrow! If one of the two had to survive, I'd much rather it were AppleWorks.
Seconded, and for the oddest application (Score:4, Interesting)
I've done more than a little with AppleWorks in my time too; in fact, I used it some Tuesday night at gaming.
AppleWorks has (I've still got an install disk and updater, so neener) a nifty paradigm for documents. A document can hold text or graphics. The spreadsheet can be spread out on a drawing document in small pieces by opening views onto different parts of a spreadsheet. Thus, a document can be spread out across ten or eleven little boxes on a single page.
I thought that would make AppleWorks hard to give up, and combined with the other parts of it, I may still keep it around for a good long time (Intel processor on my next computer notwithstanding).
When I got Numbers, of course I could create as many two-and-three-column spreadsheets on the page as I wanted and link them together. A second sheet contained the "hidden" information which the other tables use for lookups. And the creative lookup scheme I was able to assemble made life a little easier.
So I've got a new character sheet. I'll still look back, but I don't regret the move.
Re:hypercard (Score:3, Interesting)
I mourn the loss of AW. It's been a good friend and true for 20+ years. It deserved a better obituary than what Apple gave it after all those years of service: http://nitewing98.blogspot.com/2007/08/appleworks
Re:memories (Score:1, Interesting)
But then Commodore had IDIOTS for management!
.
.
.
OK that should get things heated up in here
Re:hypercard (Score:1, Interesting)
It has full libraries for XML and various Internet/Sockets operations, an integrated database engine (SQLite) and native support for MySQL (no ODBC drivers needed) and a number of other databases. It's a great front-end for DB systems (especially when you consider there's no per-set cost, because you can create royalty-free standalone executables on any of the supported platforms).
You'll find more info on it at http://www.runrev.com/ [runrev.com]
If you want to program in HyperCard's beautiful natural language, Revolution is really the best way to go. There are other clones out there but they are either woefully unfinished (PythonCard), support only Mac (SuperCard), or are designed for kids.
Re:memories (Score:4, Interesting)
Now there's an idea; gather up a bunch of old but working apps, that are lightning fast on current hardware and bundle them for the mobile market.