Word processors, spreadsheets and databases are undoubtedly the most popular applications for the Archimedes, and indeed any micro. PipeDream, from Colton Software, integrated all three into a single package, and has achieved a deserved measure of success, not only on the Archimedes but in versions for the Cambridge Computer Z88 and the PC market. Now Colton has launched PipeDream 3, a completely rewritten version of PipeDream (reviewed in RISC User Volume 1 Issue 8) which now incorporates the previously separate spelling checker (reviewed in Volume 2 Issue 2).
PipeDream 3 now conforms fully to the standards for RISC OS applications. Indeed, Colton Software has coined the name Riscware for such software.
All of the functionality of earlier versions of PipeDream remains: what has changed completely is the user interface. Furthermore, by running under RISC OS, text, data and graphics may be readily imported into a PipeDream document, or exported to other applications. The results fully justify the outlay required for this software, and upgrade paths are available for existing users.
Other new features permit references in one worksheet to be made to slots in others, a form of external reference. Where necessary, PipeDream 3 now automatically loads the sub-sheets and likewise updates all external references for you as appropriate. In fact, Colton has employed improved memory compaction techniques to cram even more data into the available memory. PipeDream 3 makes full use of the mouse for pointing and for menu selection, whilst retaining (in a slightly modified form) the previous keyboard control.
For a more detailed explanation of the philosophy behind PipeDream I suggest you look at either of those earlier RISC User reviews. Simply put, PipeDream allows word processing, spreadsheet and database functions to take place as appropriate on (alpha)numeric data and text on the same basic worksheet. Thus all functions are totally integrated.
You can then process the data either as text to be formatted and subjected to most of the same operations possible with any powerful word processor, or, if the slot is designated as an expression slot containing numeric data or formulae it will be treated and manipulated in true spreadsheet or database style.
The excellent manual (a feature of Colton products, it seems) explains all this very well and runs to substantially over 400 pages. Beware though! If you have not used PipeDream before, the use of tabbing (to move about the underlying worksheet, and the way word-wrap is handled are quite off-putting at first.
All PipeDream applications are based upon a spreadsheet-style grid of rows and columns called a worksheet. PipeDream text takes as its left-hand margin the start of whichever column is first selected, spreading rightwards as you type across the screen, pushing the right-hand limit of that slot beyond the column boundary, as far as display is concerned, yet remaining in it (because that's where it started) for the purposes of manipulation and formatting.
Like most other word processors, PipeDream 3 will start a new line when Return is pressed, and there is a welcome option to denote line separators as either LF, CR or LF-CR. Scrolling is relatively smooth, though not as smooth as with, say, Clares' Graphic Writer, but this is at the expense of the full operation of the window slider. When you think of the amount of potential information to be updated, this should not be a real worry.
Gone are the pull-down menus from the bar at the top of the screen; instead PipeDream 3 works in full Wimp fashion, with standard RISC OS menu windows for all PipeDream functions, but most of these can also be selected as keyboard operations much as before. Most of the key combinations are identical to the earlier versions of the software too, except that the use of the Alt key (somewhat alien to the users of Acorn's micros) has been replaced by Ctrl. Thus, if you instinctively used to press Alt-SS to swap the case of the character at the caret (the RISC OS text cursor), Ctrl-SS now does the same thing. And of course there are extra functions too.
The by now standard RISC OS dialogue boxes also appear where further parameters are required - for the printer options or the number of trailing decimal digits, for example. This new user interface is perhaps the most significant of the many improvements.
For flexibility and range of features the software is now hard to beat. Because PipeDream 3 operates from the Desktop, all the printer and file-handling features which that supports are available. Indeed, greater use can now be made of meaningful directory structures - documents in one, say, and dictionaries in another. It also means, for example, that it is very easy to highlight a block of data, save this as a file which can be dragged into Minerva's GraphBox, and the resulting graph file similarly dragged back to your PipeDream document to be positioned alongside the original data (in less time than it takes to describe).
In the first place, installation of the software on your system is much easier than it was in earlier versions. As a security feature you will also need to enter your registration details the first time you use PipeDream.
One extra, of course, is the inclusion of the previously separate spelling checker, and this is one reason for the higher price of PipeDream 3 (compared with earlier Pipedreams). The latest version comprises a dictionary of more than 90,000 words, but this is surely no more than an essential requirement for any serious word processor these days. PipeDream 3's auto-spellcheck runs pretty quickly, and seems better able to keep up with a reasonable typing speed than before.
Other enhanced features of this part of the software make it a delight to use. There are anagrams and subgrams (an anagram using a subset of letters), while the merging, handling and dumping of dictionaries works well and efficiently. All dictionary operations can work over multiple documents.
Files in many formats (View/Viewsheet, Lotus 1-2-3, 1st Word Plus, Tab, CSV) as well as earlier PipeDream files can be loaded and saved, and Acorn DTP format is catered for as well. There is full compatibility with the Z88 system and a Z88 filing system can be installed and run from the Desktop. The manual goes into particular detail over Lotus file transfers.
There is better (and easier) recovery of blocks, columns and rows as well as words. A default buffer of up to the 50 of the most recent deletions is maintained (and this can be varied up to a maximum of 255).
The Macro Recorder has been simplified, and ways to define specific keys or to execute command sequences (which you might need on start up, for example) are clearly explained in the manual.
PipeDream 3 now has natural re-calculation, getting round those occasions when forward referencing of cells would either cause an error or force the re-calculation to be carried out several times. Re-calculation now works on a set of formulae until a specific result is achieved, and all re-calculation is arranged so as to appear to be multi-tasking.
References to cells in other sheets are now possible, replication of blocks of cells has been substantially improved, and there are enhancements to the possible display formats - for example for negative numbers, dates and large numbers. Some half dozen new spreadsheet functions have been added, bringing the total to over sixty.
This area has, perhaps, received least attention, but may turn out to be one of the most useful for some applications. Imagine a database where fields represent the prices, locations, facilities etc of houses (for an estate agent, perhaps). Imagine that you also want to include lengthier descriptions of certain features. Using a conventional database, this data would consume a much longer field than was probably allowable or convenient. The maximum permitted by System Delta Plus, for example, is 255 characters.
PipeDream will allow fields as wide as your sheet can be. Since they can be multi-row fields, they are theoretically unlimited, and yet such a database could still be sorted on price and all the associated text put in its correct place too. The syntax of the database commands has been usefully improved too for PipeDream 3.
The original PipeDream manual impressed, but that for PipeDream 3 is even better. There is an initial tutorial which really does assume no previous knowledge - three lines are used to identify and describe keys like 0 (zero) and Return. This introduction takes up about 70 pages and is paced so as to introduce you in a logical way to all of PipeDream's main features.
This is followed by a section that takes you through a likely sequence of activities to build up a typical document (a report) where numerical tables and data might also be included.
Then, for seasoned users (and maybe the merely curious), there is a full reference section of some 200 pages, of which 60 or so contain a summary table and longer explanations of each command in alphabetical order. Excellent.
Admittedly not everything is covered, but the product is so well supported by Colton (e.g. free updates of PipeDream 3 to registered users) that this is no cause for worry.
There are still some minor niggles, like the absence of a single key indent. Marking blocks of text in units smaller than one slot is not possible either. PipeDream 3 still doesn't include all the features that you might expect to find in a more expensive and dedicated word processor, spreadsheet or database, such as Lotus 1-2-3 or Logistix, or the forthcoming Minerva Multistore or dBase IV for example. But that is hardly the point. PipeDream scores in being very easy to use, very comprehensive in what it has to offer, and superb at handling a wide variety of data types in a fully integrated fashion.
Product PipeDream 3 Supplier Colton Software, Broadway House, 149-151 St Neots Road, Hardwick, Cambridge CB3 7QJ. Tel. 0954 211472 Price £169.05 inc. VAT. (complete) £34.50 inc. VAT. (if returning your original PipeDream 2 with Spellcheck) £74.75 inc. VAT. (without Spellcheck)