From: simon@ivem.ucsd.edu (Simon Lee)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer,comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: Attn Commodore: You are making a Big Mistake (Hardware Manual)
Date: 23 Nov 1992 02:45:44 GMT
Organization: University of California, San Diego
NNTP-Posting-Host: ivem.ucsd.edu
Keywords: hardware reference manual

In article <1992Nov21.123328.10653@ifi.uio.no> stigo@ifi.uio.no (Stig Arne Olsen) writes:
>I think you missed my point earlier that a lot of people buy machines
>because of the demos. This is something that is very unique for the Amiga.
>So, I think your point about not doing anything for sales is wrong. 
>How many A500 vs A3000 has there been sold? If you don't release any
>new machines between the A1200 and A4000, I think you will see that the
>same thing will happen again, the A1200 will be the clear winner.
>I don't know if you guys at Commodore have even seen programs like ProTracker,
>that have become almost a standard in the demo world. Now there even exists
>mod-players for ms-dos machines! 

I for one would not buy a computer because of a neat little demo.  I've seen
many on the PC's, but I still wouldn't buy a PC.  I bought one because it had
a multi-tasking system, where I could do more than one thing at once.  I hate
to wait for processes to finish before being able to do the next thing.

>and demos. Demos are not supposed to last a lifetime. When you release new
>chip sets, people just adjust after a while. It's not so critical as you
>seem to think. If you worry about getting the best possible hardware, let
>me worry about my programs working.

Your programs, if you ever decide to sell it, would make many a frustrated
customers.  Sure, you may not upgrade your computer, but those of us who do
upgrade are stuck with code made only for the past years model.  Not very good
for the computer's reputation.

>So, I was right. They have to pay a fee (how much is this small
>fee, anyway?). If a program requires kickstart 2.0, it's not very likely
>that the ones who will use it do not have wb 2.0 too. And this makes it
>it impossible to do for public-domain/freeware programmers.

I'm glad they charge.  It will attract the "serious" programmers to write for
the Amiga.  Why would it be impossible for PD/Freeware programmers to do
(what?)  They can get 2.0 specific libraries from their compiler manufacturer.
They usually come with documentation for it also.  Maybe no hardware banging
code, but that's unnecessary since you can do what you want through the 2.0
library calls.  Why hardware hack?  People will realize that if something is
too slow, they should upgrade the processor.  You might say why should the
processor be upgraded since that's more expensive rather than optimize the
code?  Well if that's the case, the Amiga's as good as dead because it would
be stuck in yesteryear with old technology.  The lowest Mac has an 020, the
majority of PC users have 386's.  The majority of Amiga owners still have
68000's.  People complain the Amiga is falling behind.  That kind of hardware
banging isn't gonna help the Amiga catch up.

-- 
*   Simon Lee              *   Microscopy and Imaging Resource          *
*   simon@ivem.ucsd.edu    *   Intermediate Voltage Electron Microscopy *
*   sulee@ucsd.edu         *   UC San Diego, Dept. of Neuroscience      *
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