Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!watcgl!kim From: kim@watsup.waterloo.edu (T. Kim Nguyen) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Voice Mail on Amiga Message-ID:Date: 2 Oct 89 06:25:14 GMT References: <688@orange6.qtp.ufl.edu> Sender: daemon@watcgl.waterloo.edu Distribution: na Organization: PAMI Group, U. of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 62 In-reply-to: sutherla@qtp.ufl.edu's message of 27 Sep 89 14:46:37 GMT In article <688@orange6.qtp.ufl.edu> sutherla@qtp.ufl.edu (scott sutherland) writes: The speed of the NEXT is DISAPPOINTING!! Let me explain. They are using a 68030 chip, a 68882 math chip, a custom DSP, a fast hard disk, a huge optical disk, etc.. BUT the response time for moving windows, calling up applications, updating the screen, etc. is NO faster than our own Amiga, with a mere 68000, no math chip, and our less powerful foursome (Gary, Denise, Paula, ObeseAgnes). I just recently attended a similar NeXT demo. I disagree with your assessment of NeXT's speed: I was amazed at how the ENTIRE window (with all details inside) followed the mouse so quickly (no lag). The Amiga moves only an outline of the window. They showed the multitasking of the NEXT, and I was surprised at the slow down in the output to the windows that had moving demos (like out boxes, lines, etc.). With the powerful hardware in the machine, I did not expect this. The demo I saw was of an aspirin molecule being rotated through various axes. The drawing essentially looked like a bunch of spheres, but the neat thing (pointed out, of course) was that you could "see through" the spheres (you could see other spheres/atoms behind them) hazily. This was supposedly a highly CPU-intensive demo, so it made sense that the other demos went rather slowly. So the NEXT is a nice machine. I do not think it is a major a step in the evolution of PC's as it is being made out to be. The NeXT is indeed a major step forward in bringing Unix to Joe User. When did you last see a graphics/mouse-based interface for a Unix workstation? I think the NeXT is a brilliant concept -- its user interface is beautifully well executed. You can build application interfaces in a matter of minutes too -- unlike the !@#$@# OS/2 Presentation Manager which requires ages to get anything decent going. I also believe that NeXT's marketing schemes are equally well designed. With their floptical disk's storage of 250MB, they will be packaging hordes of neat and useful software with their machines. The software currently running on the NeXT can exchange all sorts of data, including PostScript images, voice, and text in a way never before seen on Unix (you drag icons of voice data in and out of your email messages, you cut and past images and drag them into other applications, etc.) (Another neat thing about those voice icons: when you receive email containing voice data, and you display the message you can actually see the voice icon contained in it! If you click on the voice icon (which can be embedded in text), you automatically hear the voice message. Talk about cool!) Admittedly these are not new concepts on their own, but put together in this way they prove that NeXT has a truly innovative group of designers (as is only to be expected from Steve Jobs!). (BTW, I have no interest whatsoever in promoting NeXTs, except that I think that nifty machines like it deserve to be applauded.) -- T. Kim Nguyen kim@watsup.waterloo.{edu|cdn} kim@watsup.uwaterloo.ca {uunet|utzoo|utai|decvax}watmath!watsup!kim Systems Design Engineering -- University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada