There President of MacKichan Software, Inc, Barry MacKichan has published a letter in their website. Does not say about the future of Scientific WorkPlace. See:

https://www.mackichan.com/

Hi Kapila,

I had already checked the MacKichan website, but thank you very much for your reply.

All the best.

Sincerely yours,

Jack

I have a problem using Scientific Work Place (SWP), which I have not used in some time.

Someone may have had this issue before since many users have used it a lot before, and so I am reaching out to them and you.

When I try and compile a .tex document, I get a message:

Failed to update system directory need permission to add?

Any help will be welcome!

Firdaus Udwadia

Hi Fridaus,

I would like to help, but I never encountered this problem, so I don't know the solution. While MacKichan Software was in business, they always solved every problem that I encountered with Scientific WorkPlace, but I never encountered the problem that you mentioned. Unfortunately, MacKichan Software went out of business on June 30, 2021, after providing excellent products and services for 40 years, so it is no longer possible to get help or advice from them.

Thanks for your help. I believe that the program cannot find the directory, or something.

When I bought it, it came on a disc, with 3-4 manuals. I just used the disc again to repair the program, but it has the same problem.

Would you know if there is a 'users forum' for SWP?

Best wishes,

firdaus

I tried searching on Google. I clicked on a site but got a message that it can't be reached. But Google searches probably would be the best way to find users forums for Scientific WorkPlace, if they exist.

Yes. It is wonderfull program.

Very useful program. It will make a great contribution to the advancement of science. Therefore, it would not be appropriate to close it.

Yes, it would be great to have a link to a support group, if there is one that grew over the time that SWP was used in the past.

Does anyone know of such a support group?

I tried searching on Google. I clicked on a site but got a message that it can't be reached. But Google searches probably would be the best way to find users forums for Scientific WorkPlace, if they exist.

The former MacKichan UK representative, https://www.sciword.co.uk, took over the support, following their "Fair Use Policy"(https://www.sciword.co.uk/smallprint.htm#fairuse).

Regarding the SWP 5.5, the best thing is to rely on your own, because the main MacKichan's user supporter, George Pearson, is not working that any more.

As for the new, SWP-6, you can find some useful---but as I have found out---not fully precise and complete instructions on how to install it and make it work properly on their webpages:

• https://www.sciword.co.uk

Namely, although following it, I couldn't make the SWP-6 work properly and after an almost ten-day-long ordeal, dr. Christopher Mabb, obviously a director and the main worker of that (one-man?) company, was not able to diagnose the problem, except concluding that "something was wrong with my computer!" In fact, he was rather polite and friendly in the beginning and I even watched him for two and a half hours trying to fix the issues on my "naughty" computer after allowing him to take online control over it. But, after repeating the arsenal of the suggestions from his own instruction documents (which I have completed already for several times before him), he didn't move a notch from the problem. Then, suddenly---probably realizing that the time predetermined for my case ran out---he changed his approach and started to talk about his 500UKP-worth working hour (lucky guy, isn't he!).

Finally, he even suggested to me to buy a new computer for running this software only, because, in his words:

• You're perhaps misunderstanding the value of our time, which invoices at £500/hour.
• "Our recommendation would be that you buy a secondary machine, dedicated to running Scientific WorkPlace 6 and TeXLive 2022; this would cost around £600 (about 5400HRK)."

When I finally fixed the thing myself, I wanted to calm the situation down and sent him a detailed description of what was wrong, hoping it would help both him and his customers if they encounter the same problem. However, he not only never said thanks for that but never even commented on my suggestions, let alone admitted his ignorance about the particular problem, but insisted on that, "This correspondence is closed. We're sorry not to be able to help you."

Adding that nothing even close to that ever happened with SWP 5.5, that George Pearson wouldn't solve or hint on solving in an email(!), I'll finish the description of my drama with SWP-6 with the following obvious epilog:

• Just imagine that I did listen to Dr. Christopher Mabb and did buy myself another computer just to run SWP 6 --- only to realize that the software is useless except for the templates for which they have provided the *.sci files.
• That would be a true "Fair-Use-Policy" experience, wouldn't it? With two computers sitting in my study room and not being able to help in writing mathematical texts by SWP-6!

Regarding the above story, if any one has the problem with running TeX Works (the TeXLive editor) and then also SWP-6, after installing them correctly, here's the solution that worked in my case:

• Check your system path and make sure that you have the correct path to the system32 folder. After knowing that, you will fix the problem that the expert from SciWord and me were fixing for 10 days of hard work (OK, the latter was probably only from my side) in 10 minutes only.
• For those of you who are not the OS experts, the recipe on how to do that may be found here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29016685/ipconfig-in-command-it-shows-ipconfig-is-not-recognized-as-internal-or-external#:~:text=1%2D%20go%20to%20%22my%20computer,5%2DOk%2C%20close%20cmd%20and (there are also other sites explaining how to enter and change the PATH in Win 10).

Hi Robert Logozar,

I'm lucky that I stayed with Scientific WorkPlace 5.5. I read somewhere that difficulties with Scientific WorkPlace 6.0 is one reason (but maybe not the only one) that MacKichan Software went out of business on June 30, 2021. But overall, both their products and their technical support were great. Hopefully MacKichan Software will be reconstituted, or at least will license another company to distribute their products and give technical support.

Hi Jack Denur, thanks for your reply! Somehow I hoped for having that instant spelling checker and the UNDO function with more than one step, and that's why I invested time in both having my institution buying this product and then now to make it work. But it all looks like it will end in futile efforts.

Let me just finish my SWP-6 saga (almost like the famous Forsythe Saga, that is just playing on our national TV).

And all this would be nothing, and I wouldn't be an offended and hurt customer if they (he) only tried to hint the answers to the remaining questions of mine! Namely, after you get your SWP-6 working, you will soon realize that without having the proper *.sci file, you simply cannot create the documents with the given cls and tex files as you can in SWP 5.5 (not a straightforward thing, but possible there, as many of you who did that for your theses with special requirements, know well). That is, although you may have your SWP-6 working with the provided *.sci files, it is still not usable at all for the other classes and styles that you might desperately need --- assuming that the (renowned) publisher will not change their templates because those are not included in the SWP-6 package of hermetic styles.

Thus, after I had the SWP-6 up and running---but also awaiting for the proper *.sci files---and had sent to Dr. Christopher Mabb a few questions (listed below), I got the following answer from him:

"... Any further Technical Support will be chargeable as Consultancy Time. You would probably need to budget for 4 hours of our time at £500/hour to respond fully to your questions below; "

And the questions were as follows:

Obviously, we---the users of SWP-6---should organize ourselves and try to help each other, perhaps even engage Mr. George Person to assist us in making this software fully functional.

If I find a workaround to this problem, like for instance preparing the files in some suitable and existing *.sci file, and then coping their parts in the desired template in some of the standard LaTeX editors, I'll report my experience here.

Finally, I hope that several other people are in the same situation and are interested in cooperation and exchange of their experiences and solutions about the use of SWP-6, without paying 500UKP for one hour of assistance in what should have been written in proper instruction manuals in the first place.

Jack Denur: "Hopefully MacKichan Software will be reconstituted, or at least will license another company to distribute their products and give technical support."

Jack, I'd like that, but I'm afraid that this will not happen any time soon. If you read my first two posts and follow the links in them, you will learn that UK-based SciWord did just that --- took over the tech. support for both products. But in the rest of my posts, you'll also see the comments on my less than satisfying experience with their (his) support and the often quoted price of 500UKP per hour.

Hi Robert Logozar,

Thank you for the clarification. Even if SciWord is only a one-man company now and not yet a complete substitute for the full support given by MackIchan Software, hopefully the demand for the excellent Scientific WorkPlace products and technical support will result in expansion of the company, which hopefully would reduce the cost of technical support. MacKichan Software always gave technical support for free after you bought their products. More money could be made by charging less for technical support, because the volume of business would increase more than the cost decreases.