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From: rick@uwmacc.UUCP (the absurdist)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: APDA - any satisfied customers?
Message-ID: <2039@uwmacc.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 27-Nov-87 11:49:32 EST
Article-I.D.: uwmacc.2039
Posted: Fri Nov 27 11:49:32 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Nov-87 22:06:00 EST
References: <1228@runx.ips.oz> <17000073@clio>
Reply-To: rick@unix.macc.wisc.edu.UUCP (The Absurdist)
Organization: UW-Madison Academic Computer Center
Lines: 54

In article <17000073@clio> berger@clio.las.uiuc.edu writes:
>
>It still sounds like a scam.  If they're the ONLY official source for
>Apple documentation, and you have to pay a membership fee, that's an
>inherent part of the cost of using your computer.  It's rather stupid
>to tell people to live without it, if you can't get the documentation
>any other way.  Computers are PROGRAMMABLE.  That's one of the main
>reasons for buying one.


Sorry, but this is not so.  Very few users program computers any more;
most run applications programs.  There are SOME users who want
to program them.  These people can buy, from Addison-Wesley, a
five volume set of programming information on the Macintosh,
written by Apple.  They can get, FOR FREE, an extensive set of
technical notes from many user's groups and electronic networks,
without going to APDA at all.  A great many people on this net
did a lot of programming without any APDA products at all, so 
the assertion that APDA prevents you from programming is clearly
unsupportable.

The only thing APDA has a monopoly on is the distribution of unsupported,
draft and/or beta versions of Apple products.  These are available
through the mail at a reasonable price.  APDA did have distribution 
problems when they started up, but this isn't all that unusual in
the computer industry.  

Others have complained that their 3rd party product prices aren't
the cheapest possible.  Well, you can certainly buy these elsewhere.
APDA probably doesn't do sufficient volume in many of these to get
the cheapest price.  I have bought these at the higher price, on
occasion, simply because the price difference wasn't enough to 
justify the additional cost of writing and processing another
purchase order. 

Finally, APDA is an organization which has no equivalent that I know of
in the microcomputer industry.  Does IBM provide any drafts of documentation
at all?  No.  Does Microsoft, or Lotus, or Ashton-Tate, or Borland?  No.
You have to wait for the release version.  (Which may be as buggy
as a beta, but for which you pay full price...).  As for Commodore,
I once tried to apply for a developer's kit for the University.
Here we are, holder of IBM's single largest grant to any University
for micro development;  holder of a substantial Apple grant;  beta
site for several programs;  test site for early versions of DEC
workstation products -- Commodore wants a proposal detailing whether
or not we're SERIOUS developers before they will consider whether or
not they will allow us to BUY a buggy compiler and draft documentation.
I did not continue my efforts to get us involved in the Amiga.  (I don't
know what Atari does for developers).

APDA is just fine by me:  RA for Apple and APDA both.
-- 
Rick Keir -- all the oysters have moved away -- UWisc - Madison
"Watch the skies...."