Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ames!pacbell!hoptoad!unisoft!gethen!bdt!david From: david@bdt.UUCP (David Beckemeyer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: Sticking up for Atari Message-ID: <316@bdt.UUCP> Date: 9 May 88 23:16:49 GMT References: <2878@pasteur.Berkeley.Edu> <213@obie.UUCP> Reply-To: david@bdt.UUCP (David Beckemeyer) Organization: Beckemeyer Development Tools, Oakland, CA Lines: 42 In article <213@obie.UUCP> wes@obie.UUCP (Barnacle Wes) writes: > [lot's deleted ] > >As I said, the ST line has some major holes that need to be filled in >to compete in the business/professional market. The hardware that is >there is quite adequate for the job, if we could just get the software >to talk and work together. And the seperate systems to talk and work >together via networks. Sigh. I think this is directly attributable to Atari not providing the system software components for doing it. Many parts of the original Mac OS were awful (if you ask me), but they picked a way to do it, did it, and then told developers how to use it. It's still not great, but it's there. A similar story goes for Microsoft/IBM too. Nothing is pretty; it's just documented and supported. By that I don't mean they provide good support; I mean that it exists in large numbers and is "standard". With the Atari, every developer is on their own to "hack" whatever they need that's not "supported" by Atari. If you propose it to the idiots there (in management), they say "See figure 1." So you're left either making your program live within the constraints imposed by Atari, or "doing it your way" and being made an outcast in Sunnyvale. Even if a group of developers agree on "standard" methods, there's no guarantee (without "support" from Atari) that things won't break or be redefined by Atari in the next ROMs (something you apparantly don't have to worry about with great frequency). Atari leaves it up to the third parties to "fix" and "improve" their system, but then Atari doesn't support the third party either! So we end up with the pot pouri of incompatible software that we have today. Each developer telling all the other ones that they did something wrong, making their program incompatible. Each developer with their own idea of the "correct" way to do things on the Atari. And Atari only says "don't do it at all." -- David Beckemeyer | "To understand ranch lingo all yuh Beckemeyer Development Tools | have to do is to know in advance what 478 Santa Clara Ave, Oakland, CA 94610 | the other feller means an' then pay UUCP: ...!ihnp4!hoptoad!bdt!david | no attention to what he says"