Wordsmith 2.1 Coming Very Soon

Would I install a slow spell checker? Yes, if the dictionary remained on the card, would let you add words to the dictionary, and did not degrade performance when not in use. This is assuming it is the type that you request the spellcheck when you want it performed. The worst case would be one that works as you type, and drags the system speed down while your are trying to bang something out quickly. It's funny, I was thinking of asking about the WS upgrade this morning, and was at their website checking for the new version a few minutes ago (been checking every few days). The most valuable feature for me will be the VFS support, just hope they don't make you lup all docs on the card together like DTG, without the ability to catergorize.

Thanks!

I was disturbed by the implication that the documents stored on the card would not be synchronized with the desktop as well, but I have decided to reserve judgment until I can test out a demo of the final version to see for myself. I know that DTG does sync documents on the card, so it is possible.

As far as the editing is concerned, it appears that the only way that VFS allows for these read/write files to work from the card is for the entire document to be copied to the main memory. It does appear that files that are read-only can be loaded on to main memory in chunks to allow access when main memory is less than the full size of the file. So as far as I know, unless Blue Nomad has found away around this, WS will require that the entire file load into main memory from the card (I hope that this transfer is not too slow as WS is not exactly a speed demon at opening files now).

I should note that this is much the same way that files are handled on a computer. You must have enough RAM (including any virtual memory) to allow the file to be moved into main memory from the storage medium before it can be edited or read for that matter.

Hope this helps.

I agree... fast on current hardware is a not to be expected, when is PalmOS going to move on to ARM? Motorola is just not good enough for newer apps

I also have it installed. It is slow, molasses slow but I don't use it that much anyway. I use the spell checker for memos more than anything else.

Jason

"Carbon" is an API used with MacOSX. This just means that the PC portion of the Wordsmith application will run natively on MacOSX (and not in MacOS9 emulation mode).

"Carbonized" applications will run in both versions of the MacOS.

From the subject line I would presume the original poster meant "are there any major changes in beta 2.148ae21 as opposed to beta 2.135cd14," and not "are there any changes in beta 2.148ae21 as opposed to 2.0."

If you are accusing me of favoritism to Wordsmith, I have to point out that this wasn't a particularly complimentary article about it and the people at Blue Nomad aren't exactly thrilled that I wrote it.

If Cutting Edge, the people who make Quickoffice, announce that a new version is going to be out by the end of the month and nothing appears weeks after the deadline, they'll be news, too. And I'm sure they'll be just as thrilled as Blue Nomad is.

Also, take a look at our poll on what is the most popular word processor:
http://www.palminfocenter.com/pollresult.asp?ID=23
You'll see that Wordsmith got more than twice as many votes as anyone else. Like it or not, Wordsmith is an important application to a great many people and that makes it news.

---
News Editor

You're right, Ed, the article isn't particularly flattering to Blue Nomad and WordSmith. If I was Quickoffice or DTG I wouldn't want the same kind of coverage either! Sorry about the gut reaction, didn't mean to imply anything of anyone.

If popularity is one of your criteria for reporting on a new release, how come you haven't yet reported on any of the new releases from Kyle Poole (now Crimson Fire)?

Kyle's original Kyle's Quest was one of the most widely acclaimed, and widely played games for the Palm. Since it's release, Kyle has continued to produce of innovative and very enjoyable games. Yet, I have never seen a story from Palm Infocenter on anything Kyle has ever done, although I frequently see items regarding games from his less successful competitors.

Most recently, Kyle has released a sequel to his smash hit Kyle's Quest: Kyle's Quest 2, as well as a new version of his very innovative Galactic Realms, and a brand new exciting & very promising adventure game called Solskia.

I look forward to reading more about them on your site in the near future.

--Charlie
(an admitted Kyle Poole fan)

Cut Ed some slack and pay attention the the site if your going to mouth off (though I am/was exceited to see KQ2 come out as well). That KQ2 was release was reported in a "quickies" on Dec 11.

My manual is 2.1 in my download.

Just installed about an hour ago, no lockups yet, but spell checking sure is slow. Which dictionary you choose has a direct effect on speed. A 275 word test document took 2:26 with the large dictionary, and only 0:51 with the smaller dictionary. To break it down further, that would be 1.8835616 words per second for the large dictionary, and 5.3921569 words per second for the small one. I'm keeping the small one, even if it was missing several common words (which can be added on the fly). Oddly enough, FastCPU made no difference, so I wonder if WordSmith is doing a little CPU manipulation of its own. We can't blame the hardware entirely. The third party developer may need to take a look at a fresh re-work of the way their code operates. The spell checker on my old Apple /// ran much faster, and that was on a machine running at only 1.4Mhz... yes that's one POINT four megahertz!