Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!ucsd!ucbvax!hplabs!hp-sdd!apollo!rehrauer From: rehrauer@apollo.HP.COM (Steve Rehrauer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Atari, TOS and GEM Summary: Apologies to Atari, with questions Message-ID: <45ede34f.71d0@apollo.HP.COM> Date: 29 Sep 89 15:09:00 GMT Reply-To: rehrauer@apollo.COM (Steve Rehrauer) Distribution: na Organization: Apollo Computer, Chelmsford, MA Lines: 82 Recently in this group I called Atari's TOS and GEM software "junk". I have been "gently reminded" by some readers that this is a less than constructive criticism. True. I spoke hastily, while under the influence of other frustrations not related to Atari. Sorry, Atari; no doubt you get sick of hearing such blather. I should think and then re-think before I post. And while I believe we all know this, it probably should be said anyway: "Anything I say or have said regards Atari or Atari products is to be construed only as the personal opinions of an owner of Atari products, not that of the corporate entity of the Apollo Division of Hewlett-Packard, nor of H.P. itself. I speak for myself." There, can I come out of the corner now, Mom? Good. So, Atari, are we ever going to see any substantive improvements to GEM? Do you own the rights to the Atari incarnation to GEM, such that you can even do so? Can we at least have resolution-independency, such that we needn't reboot our machines to switch from medium- to low-resolution screens in an application? Why does David Beckmeyer say that you have never shown any interest in incorporating his multi-tasking kernel into the ST? You incorporated Dave Small's "Twister" disk format concept into the Megas, I understand -- why not multi-tasking for the TT if not older models? You are aware of it, are you not? Are there technical difficulties? Legal difficulties? Ego difficulties? If the TT is as fast as the '030 is potentially capable of making it, will Atari release something like PC-Ditto on it, to provide (free of charge) MS-DOS emulation at (I'm guessing) XT-clone speeds? Boy, would *THAT* be a marketing hook! How about incorporating other, less drastic improvements -- such as the executable- compression scheme used in products like PACKER and DC SQUISH? Or the palette-switching scheme used by Spectrum512 to get the full hardware palette of 512 colors on a single screen -- could ANTIC Software (or whomever owns the technique) be persuaded to liscense it to developers? Do they already? It's a mighty impressive-looking gadget, even if it does eat the majority of the cpu's processing power. How about collecting some of the best public domain widgets, cleaning them up (to give them coherent user-interfaces, if they have such) and distributing them on an extra disk or two to new owners? At least a RAM disk would be nice -- is that a feature of the TOS 1.4 release, by the way? Wouldn't it be fairly easy to add a new device for a RAM disk to TOS, so that, for example, formatting the "Z:" drive or some such would create a RAM disk? Can we ever expect to see the 6-desk-accessory limit lengthened, since so many accessories are usually employed to get around weaknesses in TOS and GEM? Are TOS and GEM in "maintenance, we-won't-touch-it-until-it-bites mode"? Is Atari planning to do anything with its CD-ROM player, now that it (apparently) is a real product? That is to ask, will Atari release anything on CD-ROM, or is it a box waiting for applications? Shouldn't Atari do something in the way of promoting recommended standard methods to do things like printer-drivers, visual appearance of GEM dialogues, etc? Wasn't there a similar recommendation for command-line parsing & environment variables & the like from Atari a couple of years ago? Is Atari serious about getting its laser printer supported by 3rd party software? Is Atari serious about selling its own laser printers, when the street-price of lasers that support de-facto standard protocols (e.g.: the new H.P. LaserJet IIP, or any of a number of cheapo LaserJet clones) is down around $1,000? Will Atari ever offer any sort of upgrade allowance to entice ST owners to "buy up" to an STE or TT, similar to what Commodore did for A1000 owners when the A2000 was announced? Are the STE and TT European machines, or will we ever see them here in the U.S.? When can we expect to actually be able to walk into an Atari- authorized dealer (assuming any still exist in the immediate area) and see one, let alone consider buying one? Will Atari advertise either machine in this country, in magazines, say? Back in 1986, START magazine published an interview with the prez of Atari, in which Mr. Tramiel said that the "new, 68020-based Ataris" would be released "within months of this interview" or some words to that effect. Rumors of the "TT" floated for months and months, and apparently prototypes were shopped around. Why should we believe that this (words from Atari employees to the effect that they have TTs on their desks notwithstanding) is anything different; i.e.: yet another VaporBox? From what I have seen on comp.sys.(apollo|sun|amiga|mac), such questions would get a reasoned response from someone within the organization. The Commodore folks seem especially good about this, unless the questions are incredibly offensive. (Are mine?) I don't own an Amiga, so that isn't an under-handed plug for that box, just an observation. Have I just missed such answers that were given earlier? Enquiring minds wanna know. -- >>> "Aaiiyeeeee! Death from above!" <<< | Steve Rehrauer Fone: (508)256-6600 x6168 | Apollo Computer, a ARPA: rehrauer@apollo.hp.com | division of Hewlett-Packard "Look, Max: 'Pressurized cheese in a can'. Even _WE_ wouldn't eat that!"