I really don't see much more useful stuff. I do see lots of stuff, though. It's just that much of it is so poorly suited to what I want to do, and how reliable I need it to be, that I just can't justify the outlay.

Now, just as an example, I broke down and purchased the X4 level package of Corel's graphics suite. It does a few things that I wanted it to do, but ... among other things ... I found it couldn't read and interpret the files that were created under version 4.0 ... years ago, for sure ... but still, shouldn't it be able to import and process its output from earlier versions? As a result, I have to maintain an old machine that runs the old version 4.0, because it can't save its output under XP and beyond ... not that I'm likely to use any Windows version beyond XP. Fortunately, it's able to create output that I can process under XP. I'm told much of that isn't even possible under Windows7. Who knows what Win8 will do with 'em. I'm told it's quite different, wanting to behave much more like a smartphone or tablet.

Documentation is another issue. Software vendors seem to have taken a page out of Microsoft's book and simply stopped producing documentation describing how their product(s) should work. Instead, they protect themselves by skipping that step and allowing the end-user to guess as to what supposed to happen when they type <control-v>, or, in some cases, simply ignoring the command. How can we tell folks to RTFM when there is no FM?

Third-party books give the software houses some cover, but many of those books belong on the FICTION shelves rather than Technology. I suppose there'll soon be a Technology Fiction section ... <sigh> ...

I'm still curious as to whether anyone's encountered a fully implemented parallel port that interfaces through USB. The old PC's with a motherboard-based printer port, or using one on a PCI card did it pretty well. From what I've read, even on 8052.COM discussions, serial ports don't always work in the same way as the "classic" ones did. Moreover, it's easier to use a USB<=>device link than to build a USB<=>RS232<=>device link. Now, I'm not prepared to say whose "fault", if it is a fault, this is, but things certainly don't work as they once did, first in that they don't work as often as they once did, and secondly in that they don't work in the same way. It's interesting, too, that those devices all masquerade as COM ports.

RE