Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site bu-cs.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!harvard!bu-cs!hen From: hen@bu-cs.UUCP (Bill Henneman) Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga Subject: Re: amiga & st Message-ID: <657@bu-cs.UUCP> Date: Fri, 20-Sep-85 10:19:38 EDT Article-I.D.: bu-cs.657 Posted: Fri Sep 20 10:19:38 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 22-Sep-85 16:32:01 EDT References: <11603@rochester.UUCP>, <266@ccivax.UUCP> Organization: Boston Univ Comp. Sci. Lines: 51 I am confused. None of the ST stories I read on the net bear even a remote resemblence to my experiences in Boston. It could be we are lucky (my local atari dealer, who also carries the amiga starting this week) is interested in pushing these machines. Every time I go in there, he has demo disks of "things to come" (he was running HUDraw in mid-July). If the amiga had been available in July, I would certainly have bought one instead of the ST. I had three uses in mind: a driver for a DX7, a terminal, a toy. The amiga is still hands down a better machine in all respects, but I am very impressed with the maturity of the ST's software environment. Despite all the opinions to the contrary in this newsgroup, I don't find the ST's software offerings sparse. Maybe I'm spoiled, but I find the developer's package useless until the silly hard disk arrives. I refuse to spoon feed floppies to the silly disk drives while compiling C programs, so all that stuff is in a box on the shelf. I am currently writing all my hacks in FORTH. 4xFORTH from the Dragon Group is the most professionally done piece of PC software I've ever bought. Aside from some minor misspellings, the manual is accurate and detailed (it weighs more than the double-sided disk drive). I have tried a test to destruction of the language, and have yet to find a single thing that doesn't work as described in the manual. The graphics are primitive (mainly straight lines and boxes), but a GEM interface is promised in about a month. There's a beautiful terminal emulator (complete with KERMIT) which I find superior in every way to MacTerm. The network manager at BU was pleasantly suprised by the quality of the package. I can't remember the name of the company, Unicorn or Dragon or Umber Hulk, or some damned cute name like that. My dealer has lots of stuff for the double-knit crowd: mailing label programs integrated with WP and Email, etc. In the toy department, I've bought HEX, HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Mud Pies: HEX and Mud Pies have ok sound. I'm going to see a demo of Dragon's Lair on Saturday: the dealer says it's "almost as good as the video arcade version". In summary, I have more than enough software to keep the ST busy the entire time I'm around the house. Bill Henneman Boston University