>>Thirty dollars and hardly any of them work? Am I missing something or is
that
>>package a bit overpriced?
>
>They work fine as long as you write your programs to use the filters 
>_correctly_.  If you ask me, they are actually way underpriced for what 
>they allow you to do.  With them, you can easily read, write, and 
>translate any of the formats supported.   Try doing that without the 
>filters and see how much of your time and money you spend getting it 
>done.  ;-)

I haven't done anything with this one _lately_... but when it first came 
out, I snatched it up gratefully. In less than a _day_ of coding effort, 
I added the ability for my former employer's "SQPA Charting" program to 
output JPEG files of each vendor's "chart" to a web server. Instead of 
printing them and mailing them, (500+ charts each 1st of the month) the 
vendors can now connect via the internet and see their Quality 
Performance data (securely) on-line immediately.

Before Staz announced those filters, a "project team" had been put 
together to rewrite the app (from FB on a IIci, to VB on a PC running NT 
Server) to do this. The cost estimate was $80,000.

"Underpriced"? I'd say so! $29.50, + 8 hrs @ $65/hr "billable", that's 
$549.50 instead of $80K!

I left when it was obvious that they were going to replace the Mac 
anyway... from what I've heard, they've just decided not to provide the 
charts. <sigh>

Bill