Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!bu-cs!dartvax!eleazar.dartmouth.edu!earleh
From: earleh@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Earle R. Horton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Microsoft cuts corners, actually
Message-ID: <9877@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Date: 20 Aug 88 02:40:25 GMT
References: <429@rose3.rosemount.com> <870217@hpcilzb.HP.COM> <9867@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> <9872@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> <9874@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Sender: news@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU
Reply-To: earleh@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Earle R. Horton)
Organization: Dartmouth-Thayer Radio Astronomy Research Group
Lines: 31

In article <9874@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> erics@eleazar.dartmouth.edu 
	(Eric Schlegel) writes:
>In article <9872@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> earleh@eleazar.dartmouth.edu 
	(Earle R. Horton) writes:
>>When Apple changes things, it is very hard to determine from the
>>documentation...
>For example? It's always seemed to me that Apple is fairly good about
>documenting what an application programmer can do and what he or she shouldn't
>touch. What specific instances have you seen to the contrary?

Popup menus.  SCSI interface changed.  *PRINTING*  Who outside of Apple
(or inside) has any idea how printing works?  I have written a printer
driver for the Mac, and sold an article to MacTutor about it (which
they were very happy to buy).  I don't have the foggiest if half the
code in my driver is "compatible" or not, and no way to find out
except by waiting for the System release that breaks it.  (That's why
it's free.)  Required documentation for writing the driver was the
PHONEBOOK edition of IM, and two Tech Notes.  They ain't sayin'
nuthin' about printing.

I have read thousands of pages of computer documentation, and the
Apple stuff is on nice slick paper, but it doesn't have half the
informational content of, say, VMS documentation.  I am not blaming
Apple for this because if they were to raise the quality of the
documentation to an acceptable level, I know I couldn't afford it.  At
20 bucks or whatever I paid for IM V, it was definitely a bargain, but
I just wish I could have paid 40 bucks and got twice as much.  Maybe
I'll buy Joel West's book...
Mr. Spock!  This disk is damaged!  Do you want to initialize it?

Earle R. Horton.  H.B. 8000, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755