Matt Neuburg’s review of StorySpace 1.1 originally ran as a special issue of TidBITS
Storyspace 1.1
Eastgate Systems
P.O. Box 1307
Cambridge, MA 02238
800/562-1638
617/924-9044
[email protected]
Rating:
7 Penguins out of a possible 10
Price and Availability: -- Single copies of Storyspace cost $160
MATT: Storyspace's fundamental metaphor is the "writing space," whose algebra is simply this: a writing space may contain one "text space" and/or any number of writing spaces; a text space is a scrolling field which may contain text and pictures.
A little thought will reveal that this describes merely an outliner of the old Apple ][ ThinkTank variety: a hierarchy of headings, each with or without an associated "paragraph." And in fact, one of Storyspace's "views" of your document is outline format
MATT: We've already said that the fundamental metaphor of spaces within spaces is nothing more than an outliner, and that Storyspace's three "views" are merely graphic manifestations of that fundamental metaphor
MATT: Creating links is easy, but charting and rearranging them is not so easy. Links are shown graphically only in storyspace view, and even there they are readily understandable only if just one link emanates from a space and both ends of the link are at the same level of the hierarchy
MATT: Thus far we've been describing things you do while Storyspace itself is up and running, and no doubt you've been thinking of uses in your own life to which its read/writable windows and configurable links between them might be put
ADAM: Storyspace does have some problems. As I said above, I would like the text entry environment, most notably the backspace key, to be more responsive