From: gblock@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Gregory R Block)
Subject: Re: CDTV is dead.
Organization: University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1992 20:59:16 GMT

barrett@iastate.edu (Marc N Barrett) writes:
:    Foundation is a bad clone of HyperCard with no support.  

It can do a LOT more than "HyperCard".  And it's pretty good.  It's
super, from what I've heard, is the best multimedia authorer available.

:    You still have to have a good knowledge of ARexx to make use of it.  I am
: talking about usability for complete novices, which is something that Amiga
: multimedia does not provide.  

And you can STILL do quite a bit with AmigaVision.  Don't forget:  I'm
talking about what I've personally used, and that's AmigaVision and a
little bit of Foundation.

If you go to one of the high-end packages, there's quite a bit you can do.

:    High-resolution motion video isn't really possible on Amigas currently.  
: It's old hat on IBM and Mac systems.

It's not EASY.  Easy and possible are two different things.

:    Computer elitism.  ARexx is a much more difficult programming environment
: than you make it out to be.  In an industry where the trends are toward more
: and more user-friendliness, the user should not have to do any programming
:to get some simple task done, like use a CD-ROM disc.  If Commodore and third-
: parties do not improve the situation, which is currently causing the Amiga
: to buck completely against the rest of the computer industry, it will never
: survive.

I disagree.  First, Arexx is a breeze.  If all you're doing is
accessing active programs during a multimedia presentation.  Let's say
you have some high-res board and a "HShow" program...

/* rx */

address command
arg arg1

HShow Arg1


Not real hard.  And I imagine it comes with lots of example
programs...  So each time you want to show a picture on the high-res
board, you just do that...

And I'm pretty Arexxically retarded.  :)

:    Well, no.  I am talking about interactive sessions, with a computer and a
: user one-on-one.  This is what the bulk of multimedia is all about, really.
: And this requires a mix of colorful graphics, good-quality sound, and a high-
: resolution non-interlaced display with the ability to display text in small
: type.  To see some really good examples of truly useful multimedia, people
: should take a look at some of the existing PD and shareware HyperCard stacks.
: I have several, which I have used to get my mom better aquainted with how
: to use a Macintosh.  

I was referring more to group-multimedia sessions, and that's also
something that multimedia's really all about--showing groups of
people, as that one person posted he had done with a product in his
company with AmigaVision just a day or so ago.

:     You cannot be coputer novice, either.  The fact is, the requirement of
: having to know anything about ARexx locks the Amiga out of 99% of potential
: buyers.  

It's not a "requirement".  Think of it as a feature which takes a
little work to use proficiently.

:    No I am not.  In situations like these, I always think of how easy-to-
: use of friendly something would have to be for my mom to be able to use it.
: She knows very little about computers, so a program has to be very user-
: friendly for her to be able to use it.  I installed a Mac emulator on her
: A3000 for this very reason.  There is a wide enough base of pre-written
: ready-to-run HyperCard stacks of all kinds that she does not have to know
: anything other than 'point-and-click' to make use of multimedia.  For her
: to do any of this on an Amiga, either I would have to write everything for
: her (which is unrealistic, because I am only home about seven weeks out of
: every year) or she would have to learn some complicated programming
: environment, because there is nothing pre-written and ready-to-run on 
: her system.

I'm going to leave that last mark go, it's obviously exaggerated.
First:  Your mom isn't going to be making a multimedia presentation.
As a matter of fact, she's probably the type of people multimedia
presentations are designed to reach--people who know very little about
computers.

What you're asking for here isn't an easy-to-use AmigaVision with lots
of advanced features, it's a big list of publically-available flows,
which will be more likely to exist once there's a player available.

Which is a totally different thing.

And HyperCard isn't really designed as a multimedia system, it just
happens to work well.  HyperCard was meant to be a means of writing
applications, and that's not something AmigaVision can fill.


--
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(:	gblock@csd4.csd.uwm.edu			Gregory R. Block         :)
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