From: jgshir@athena.mit.edu (John G Shirlaw)
Subject: Re: On SW for NRW
Keywords: software, NeXT RISC workstation
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 18:09:35 GMT

In article <1992Oct7.041657.6153@cx5.com>, tlc@cx5.com writes:
|> 
|> The reason I was asking if software running on an 040-cube would run on the  
|> upcoming NeXT RISC-based workstation was for two reasons: 
|> 
|> 1) My system is monochrome. I would like to get a color NeXT machine (decided,  
|> wisely it seems, against the NeXTdimension), and have pretty much decided to  
|> wait to see the RISC machines before investing in the current color offerings.  
|> With the speed ratings (~200 MIPS) being brandied about in comp.sys.x, it seems  
|> as if these machines will be most appropriate for my intended usage (high-end  
|> graphics/animation/post-production).
|> 
|> 2) I saw some very interesting software at Seybold San Francisco recently:  
|> Retouche (image processing from 3K Computerbild), Stylist (page layout from  
|> Archetype), announcements for several 3D modeling packages (including Stone  
|> Designs' 3Dreality) and several CAD packages in short, many of the applications  
|> I have been waiting for on this platform for 2-3 years now. This was very  
|> exciting, even if it is probably 6 or 8 months before this stuff really  
|> happens... But to get back to the point, I was very hesitant to purchase, or  
|> intend to purchase, any of these applications unless they will run on the RISC  
|> machines (assuming for a moment that my future NeXT color system will indeed be  
|> a RISC machine).
|> 
|> The several replies I got directly or saw posted confirmed my suspicion that  
|> software compiled to run on 040 machines will not run on RISC machines. Would  
|> any developers out there care to comment on how they indend to deal  
|> (financially) with this issue? For example, will you send out two versions in  
|> the same packaging, offer a reasonable fee (say on the order of an "upgrade"  
|> price) for purchasing both versions of the same package, or at the very least a  
|> nominal charge for license-type use on two different machines?
|> 
|> On a related note: I think that the RISC machine will be able to be networked  
|> with my Cube (right?). Is it going to be possible to, say, model on the Cube  
|> and render on the RISC (or vice versa), or any other foreseeable combinations  
|> of using these machines in tandem? I'm thinking here of distributed computing,  
|> which seems like such a good idea for really using these machines together. Is  
|> there going to be some conflict because the systems use different CPUs? Pardon  
|> my ignorance if this is obvious, I am not an engineer...
|> 
|> I look forward to your replies,
|> 
|> Thierry Castro
|> tlc@cx5.com
|> 


Given that NeXT clames that I forget who but one of the major vendor managed to
port there software to NS486 in less than a day.  I would guess/hope that the
same porting situation will occure with the NRW.  Thus unless the companies
making the software using porgramming languidges other than C and IB shouldn't be
a problem on porting.

Well that is my $0.02 worth.


john.
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