Picking Fast Software- Jonathan
Ploudre
July 13, 2000
Lately I have been thinking a lot about speed. Speed is the most
touted feature of each new computer, but it is equally relevant to
low end Macs. LEM's webmaster, Dan Knight, puts it this way,
"Eventually every computer becomes low end." I mentioned in Speed
Reconsidered that an old Mac can seem just as fast as a new
computer if you have responsive software that is customized
for how you work. In this article I want to paint in the details of
how you might go about picking your applications. What does it mean to say that software is fast? Hardware is easy
to measure; if you read the Mac web, you'll often see abbreviations
for measurements of speed. MHz this, Kb/sec that, 16x the other. But
computer publications rarely measure the speed of software. Although
occasionally they do "real world tests," meaning that they use normal
software, but they are still benchmarking hardware. When software developers talk about speed they are usually
referring to code optimization. Some algorithms are inherently faster
than others. The difference of a sorting algorithm might be minor
when you are dealing with a handful of items, but when you have a
2,000 record FileMaker database, those differences can be huge. Sometimes these software optimizations are apparent to end users,
but often they are not. When QuickTime came out, it was neat to see a
postage stamp sized movie on my Mac
IIsi. But if you made the picture big, it became very slow and
unwieldy. When QuickTime 2.0 came out, I was shocked. They had
optimized the code in such a way that I could watch full screen video
at 15 frames a second on the same hardware. That sort of improvement
is rare in software development. Software developers also talk about speed when they are taking
advantage of features of the Mac hardware. In the mid-1990s native
PowerPC software was the rage. Because this software was written and
compiled especially for the PowerPC chip, it is usually faster than
emulated 68K code. Currently almost all software is PPC native -- or
it is "fat," which means it is has native code for both the 68K
processors and PowerPC processors. In 2000, developers may say that
their software is optimized the Velocity Engine in the G4 processor.
The Velocity can make a few tasks faster but the G4 can still be
considered insignificantly
superior to the G3 As you may know from my previous columns, I like focusing on
things I can control. For the most part I can not optimize the code
of my software. Even if I could, say if I used LinuxPPC, I don't
think it would be worth my time. Perhaps you have seen Amadeus, which
won the Best Picture Oscar for its year. Salieri was a fair composer,
but he felt cursed by God because he could recognize greatness that
he couldn't make himself. I'm like that: I don't make fast Mac
software but I can recognize it when I use it. Guidelines for Choosing Software.Sometimes it is easier to define something by describing its
opposite. I'd like to list some common software flaws, why they slow
me down, and what that means for you. Software that requires a lot of
RAM slows me down because it means that I can have fewer programs
open. When Apple introduced multitasking to the Mac in System 6, it
opened up a lot of productivity. But if programs require too much
memory, I am required to quit and restart them while using my Mac so
that I can free memory for other programs. Software that requires a lot of hard drive space is flawed for the
same reason, since it forces me to clear up drive space. When you buy
software or register shareware or even download freeware, you should
consider how much memory and hard drive space it uses and prefer
smaller software. Do the increased features justify the increased
system requirements? Software that has a lot of bugs obviously slows me down a lot.
Every time I crash, I have to wait a few minutes before my computer
is back where it was before I crashed. You can get some measure of
whether software is buggy by asking users, but that evidence is
anecdotal. There are many variables to stability, so a program that
crashes constantly for a friend may seem rock solid on your Mac. As a
general rule, if software is frequently updated or if there are a
number of updates released before it the version changed (such as
ClarisWorks 4.0v6), then it is usually more stable. Some programs are confusing and difficult to learn. You can find
out whether a program is easy by asking someone who uses the software
what it was like when they started. Beware of asking a power user,
though, especially if you are a novice -- you may have different
definitions of easy! Henry Bortman described one way of looking at how easy a program
is in his opinion about Discoverability
Quotient. His thesis is that you shouldn't need to read the
manual. Steer clear of software that is described as difficult,
unless you have a reason to learn that software. However, if you are
going to use software a lot, it may be okay to use more difficult
software. It was worth it to Henry Ford to learn how to implement an
assembly line so that he could produce thousands of cars
efficiently. A corollary to the "easy to learn" rule is that software should be
as simple as possible, but not more so. It takes time for people to
learn software. Even after you learn how to use software, it takes
more time to choose from five options than from one. The commands you
use the most should be easy to discover when you are learning and
easy to use to once you know them. - A few years ago there was a huge uproar when Microsoft Word
6.0 was released. Many complained that it looked like a Windows
program. The real concern of most people who actually used the
program was that common features were buried. They had to go
through three dialog boxes to get to a feature that they used all
the time. As more features were added, software developers had to
make the program "deeper" to contain all the options.
It is nice to have new features, but when considering a software
upgrade remember that useless features can make the software less
enjoyable to use. Software that is non-responsive to mouse clicks frustrates me.
It's not the waiting that's the problem, it's that the program
doesn't let me know I am supposed to wait by putting up a watch or
beachball. Likewise, software that monopolizes my computer makes me
slower because it can make my other software less responsive when it
is running in the background. Software that was designed before your computer was made or around
the same time often seems more responsive, since it assumes hardware
limitations that are accurate for your Mac. If you find you have
software that monopolizes your computer, try to use it only when
necessary. Now that I have my ducks in a row, I can tell you the best piece
of Mac software ever: ClarisWorks 4.0v6. It requires only 1 MB of
memory and the program itself uses less than 1 MB of hard drive
space. In that efficient package you get word processing, a
spreadsheet, a database, painting, and drawing. (I omit the terminal
program, since I have never met anyone who uses it regularly.) There
are people who run an entire business using only ClarisWorks. With
six revisions to version 4.0, ClarisWorks 4.0v6 it is a stable
program -- and because it is by Claris, it is noted for it's ease of
use. Almost every option in the program is useful, so it is simple to
use even though it has a lot of power. Unfortunately, the programmers who wrote 4.0 went their separate
ways after it was released, so newer versions lack some of the
advantages of version 4. Because it is several years old, it has quirks with newer versions
of the Mac OS. For example, the Appearance Manager can make the menus
look a little funny. Nevertheless, if you have never used
ClarisWorks, you owe it to yourself to try it out sometime. More
importantly, if you have older Macs that you plan to donate to
schools or computerless friends, the best thing you can do for them
is get ClarisWorks 4 on that computer. That ends my buyer's guide to fast software. I think you can see
now why sometimes older versions of software are worth hanging unto.
Older version often have advantages of being smaller, having fewer
options (which makes it easier to learn and use), and being more
responsive, since they were designed with older hardware in mind. Don't get sucked into mindlessly upgrading your software. Look for
real advances, but skip upgrades that fail these guidelines.
- <this article available in a printer-friendly
format>
The first thing that Jonathan
Ploudre did when he got his own Mac IIsi in 1991 was to make a
custom icon for the computer and give it a name. Ever since then he
has been trying to make Macs as fast and friendly as possible.
Comments, opinions, and ideas about this or other Back & Forth
columns are gladly accepted. Articles by Jonathan PloudreElsewhere on Low End Mac- Born Again: It Works!,
Dan Knight, Online Tech Journal, 8/23. Yes, you can run Mac OS 8.1
on some 68030-based Macs.
- QuickCam + PowerBook =
Webcam, Manuel Mejia Jr., Mac Daniel, 8/23. How to set up an
older Mac (in this case, a PowerBook 145) with a QuickCam and use
it as a webcam.
- Troubleshooting FileMaker
Pro, Dan Knight, 8/23. How to prevent and recover from data
errors in FileMaker Pro.
- An Old Friend, Somewhere in
Boxes, My First Mac, 8/22. "My first computer was the Quadra
660AV. It was the first computer I had ever owned."
- Quest for a User-friendly
Hub, Joshua McKinney, My Turn, 8/22. If USB is supposed to be
plug and play, why do so many hubs make that difficult?
- When to buy new, Dan Knight,
Mac Musings, 8/21. The publisher of Low End Mac admits that it
sometimes makes more sense to get a new computer then keep
upgrading an old one.
- Making Macs listen and
obey, Evan Kleiman, Mac Daniel, 8/21. A brief introduction to
using Speech Recognition to control your Mac.
- Screens of plastic could be
fantastic, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 8/21.
New technologies could make flat panel displays far less
costly.
- New @ Low End
Mac: Receive email information on new articles.
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