You are much too harsh on Pagestream. True tyhe other main players have added much to their products but the basics remain the same. Moreover Pagestream has a complete Arexx interface and that means a lot more practical extensions can be added then even Xpress can muster.
Sometimes more is not necessarily better, a lot of the bells and whistles are just that, generalisied production features not necessarily very useful and more easily and productively done in scripts.
Also I would rather a DTP software which does not try to be a half-arsed photo-shop, a half-arsed production manager and a half-arsed illustrator - this is where most of the bells and whistles are in the mainline professional programs and we can well do without them and their clutter.
Pagestream is a more then respectable DTP program and when SHEEP comes out it may well overshoot the competition in practical DTP, anyhow Arexx already gives it a substantial edge at least as potential (it really needed to come back onto the Amiga to make this exploitatable).
Hopefully we will see an AmigaDE version with a native SHEEP interface in the future which will make it a head to head competitor with the big-boys of DTP.
The fact is that printing technology defines effective DTP and not the other way round. I have always liked Xpress which by far is the most professional system, but the potential of Pagestream and Arexx leave it for dead if you are after real rather than apparent productivity.
