Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!sdcsvax!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!ncr-sd!crash!ford
From: ford@crash.cts.com (Michael Ditto)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Amiga and MIDI
Message-ID: <2094@crash.cts.com>
Date: Sat, 5-Dec-87 17:54:46 EST
Article-I.D.: crash.2094
Posted: Sat Dec  5 17:54:46 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 10-Dec-87 22:41:01 EST
References: <447@nuchat.UUCP> <32160@auc.UUCP> <528@otto.COM> <4567@pyr.gatech.EDU> <3813@trwrb.UUCP>
Reply-To: ford@crash.CTS.COM (Michael Ditto)
Organization: Crash TS, El Cajon, CA
Lines: 87
Keywords: MIDI Amiga Atari ST
Summary: Just more flames about port-sharing on the Amiga
Xref: mnetor comp.sys.amiga:12013 comp.sys.atari.st:6665

**** FLAME ON ****

In article <4567@pyr.gatech.EDU> gt4785b@pyr.UUCP (David Carter) writes:
>...  Yeah, it would be nice to have a seperate, dedicated MIDI jack, but
>a) you usually never print while MIDI-ing, and b) many people will never use
>their Amigas for MIDI, so it would have been wasted money.

First of all, a MIDI interface connects to the serial port, not the printer
port.  So, although some people have serial printers, the problem is more
general than whether you want to print and 'MIDI' at the same time.  I
have a terminal program running absolutely every minute that my Amiga is
powered on (usually 24 hours/day).  Because of the Amiga's hard-coded
single-serial-port software design, I can not conveniently use MIDI on
my Amiga.  Even if auxiliary serial ports were available, all Amiga software
that does non-trivial serial I/O (including MIDI) uses the built-in port.

The current system of software access to a MIDI device is consistent and
works well with any manufacturer's MIDI adapter.  The software incompati-
bility between different MIDI adapters that has been suggested does not
exist, since MIDI access is done through the normal serial.device.

The problem is:  Amiga system software supports the existence of other
serial devices, but does not allow using them to connect a serial printer
with a consistent software interface (i.e. printer.device won't work).
This means that serial printers can only be connected to the built-in
serial port.  Amiga communications application software only supports the
built-in serial port.  This means that modems can only be connected to the
built-in serial port.  Amiga MIDI software only supports the built-in
serial port.  This means that MIDI devices can only be connected to the
built-in serial port.

The cause of this is mainly that from the beginning, C=A has said to
developers: "If you want to do serial I/O, here's what you do:  You open
the built-in serial-port, set up the parameters...".  And that is what
the developers did.

I wish the Amiga's software were at least as expandable as its hardware.

In article <3813@trwrb.UUCP> sansom@trwrb.dsd.trw.com.UUCP (Richard Sansom) writes:
>I use my printer all the time with my current MIDI setup (1040 ST, various
>software packages, DX27, TX81Z, TR505).  If I had to disconnect my MIDI port
>each time I wanted to print something, I'd go nuts.

A 1040 ST, eh?  What does this have to do with the subject "Amiga and MIDI"?
Oh, you're saying that it's nice to have a dedicated MIDI device.  This is
fine, but that does not mean it has to be included with the computer.  This
just increases the cost of the system without increasing its usefulness for
most people.  The Atarioids are always saying that the Amiga costs too much,
but are so proud of their built-in MIDI port that increased the cost of
their system and will probably never be used.

>                                                     Also, what makes you so
>sure "many people will never use their Amigas for MIDI"?

Consider the number of people in this country who use MIDI devices.  Let's
make a really liberal estimate and say it's a whole one percent of the
population.  Now consider the people who own Amigas as a sample of that
population.  Since many people who chose to buy an Amiga did so because
of some technical or artistic interest, let's say that there will be a
greater incidence of MIDI users, maybe even 5 times as many.  Maybe even
ten times as many.  That still leaves 90 percent of Amigas that will
never even be in the same room as any MIDI equipment.  Whether that number
is "many" is a matter of definition, but it certainly indicates that
making those 10% of the users pay for everyone to have a MIDI port is
silly.

**** FLAME OFF ****

I think Commodore made a good compromise in providing a general purpose
port that can be used for modems, printers, MIDI, and many other things.
This minimizes the cost to the users with simple applications, and provides
a lot of functionality to the avarage user.

The problem is that the software was not made expandable enough for
sophisticated applications.  The capability is there, but the software
implementation makes things difficult.  Note that by "sophisticated
applications" I do not mean bizarre uses of the Amiga that its designers
never anticipated, nor some "power user" that wants the Amiga to do the
work of 25 computers.  I mean the sorts of things that people expect
from computers these days; things that even IBM-PC's can do.  The Amiga
is a sophisticated computer, I hate to see it limited in unnecessary
ways.
-- 

Mike Ditto					-=] Ford [=-
P.O. Box 1721					ford%kenobi@crash.CTS.COM
Bonita, CA 92002				ford@crash.CTS.COM