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