From: johnm@cory.Berkeley.EDU (John D. Mitchell)
Subject: Re: Developing (was re: new apps)
Organization: University of California, at Berkeley
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1992 23:20:14 GMT

In article <Dec.11.16.55.00.1992.13320@pilot.njin.net>
birchall@pilot.njin.net (Shag) writes:
[...]
>Oh, out of curiosity, is there an actual _price_ on the SDK, or do you get
>it for free when you buy the documentation? (usually you buy the program
>and get the docs for free, but this is object-oriented, so we do it the
>other way around. ;)

The SDK is not yet shipping so it would be kinda hard to quote a price. :-)

>Also, has the price on the documentation ($200 last I heard) dropped any?
>GeoWorks seems to introduce products priced at $200 and let the price fall
>over a period of time, and now that Pro's selling for a little over $100, I
>was hoping the SDK might be a little cheaper.

Well, since the cost of printing and shipping hasn't gone down, the price
has no reason to change.  :-) The SRP of GeoWorks Pro is still $199, I
believe.  It's just that you can find it at lower prices.

>Lastly, what are the requirements for single-machine development (i.e.
>_without_ the SWAT debugger in use)?  Is a '386 required for the developing
>machine whether you're running SWAT or not?  Will a '386SX do?  (I've seen
>some good prices on a '386-33 motherboard and am thinking of upgrading my
>'286 if I earn any decent money soon.)  Just how crippled would I be without
>SWAT?

First, I'll give you my personal recommendation based on my desire for an
awesome development environment and then I'll come down to earth a bit. :-)

Near-term Dream GEOS Development System:

Host:
	66 MHz i486
	Local bus SVGA video
	17+ inch multi-sync monitor
	Large Fast & Wide SCSI-2 hard disk
	ZEOS RS Keyboard
	16 MB RAM
	Pioneer Multi-Function optical disk drive (this sucker will handle
	rewritable as well as worm disks).
	Logitech Bus mouse

Normal/Work Target:
	33 MHz (higher would be nice but no sweat :-) i386
	Local bus SVGA
	15 inch SVGA monitor
	sub-21 ms IDE drive
	ZEOS RS keyboard
	4 MB RAM
	Logitech bus mouse
	A fast modem

Anal-retentive Test Target:
	Original 512KB Ram 4.77 MHz IBM XT
	[This gives one a true apreciation for the art of efficiency. :-)]

Okay, so I'm dreaming (guess I'll have to start saving up :-).  You gotta
admit that would be an incredible set up!  Oh yeah, you'd probably need a
new (bigger) desk to put all this stuff on.

Down to Earth GEOS Development System:

Host:
	33 MHz i386
	VGA video (good spot to spend the extra bucks though) and monitor.
	4 MB RAM
	120+ MB hard disk (no the SDK won't take up that much room but
	there's no point in buying anything smaller nowadays).
	Mouse

Target:
	20+ MHz i386
	Whatever video suits you
	2 MB RAM
	10+ MB hard disk
	Mouse
	2400 Baud Modem

Now, even the down to earth numbers aren't the bare minimums that the tools
will run on but you have to keep in mind that there's a lot of error
checking code in the debugging version of the software (GEOS not the tools
:-) and that makes a faster system much more desirable for a developer than
what an end user will require (for the same level of responsiveness).

Now for the painful part... You *really*, REALLY want to be able to use
Swat.  There are just too many things that can/will happen where there is
no way that you'll ever be able to figure them out without the debugger
(being that that *is* it's purpose for existence :-).  I'd suggest that you
keep your current system for the target and get a new (but cheap, low end
386) just before you get the SDK (if you're really strapped for cash,
waiting until just before you get the SDK will give time for system prices
to continue to drop).

The tools themselves are written with a 386 DOS-Extender.

Hope this helps,
		John
		johnm@cory.Berkeley.EDU

P.S.	Hey! These are *my* opinions.  GeoWorks speaks for itself.
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.pcgeos