Re: GS WEb, tcp/ip and other net software for GS

[johnlb@primenet.com (John Bowling)]

In article <DoDpDv.En1@pgh.nauticom.net>,
KEVIN LOESCH <kloesch@pgh.nauticom.net> wrote:
>John Bowling (johnlb@primenet.com) wrote:
>: In article <4hsjcq$4oa@eddore.myrias.com>,
>: Devin Reade <gdr@eddore.myrias.com> wrote:
>: >In article <4hkec6$9dc@acme.freenet.columbus.oh.us>,
>: >Dan Masterson <dmasters@freenet.columbus.oh.us> wrote:
>: >>I have no problem purchasing products for my GS that I want/need, but what
>: >>bothers me is after I purchase a product for nearly a hundred bucks, they
>: >>come out with an 'upgrade' and want about 1/2 of my original purchase
>: >>price for it.  I've already bought it once, why should I keep buying it
>: >>over and over..ad infinitum?
>: >
>: >I'm afraid that's pretty well the norm in the software world,
>: >especially considering the difference between 1.x and 2.x.  (I can
>: >sympathize with your position for minor upgrades, however.)  We
>: >cannot honestly expect GS developers to be any different, particularly
>: >given the relative market sizes.
>: >--
>: >	Devin Reade	gdr@eddore.myrias.ab.ca
>
>: Have you looked at some ibm software?  A decent paint package is $300 to 
>: $1000 and they don't upgrade.  You buy the new version at full price!
>: That's according to a friend who uses an ibm now.  He bitches that a $600 
>: version doesn't do what DeluxPaint on his Amiga did for $80.
>
>	$300 to $1000 for a PC paint program? I don't no were your 
>shopping for these items but the ones I see are usually alot cheaper. 
>Most software companies do offer upgrades but the new features do not 
>always justify the upgrade cost. A good example is MS Word for Windows. 
>The Win 95 upgrade is around a $100, for that you get a slower program 
>that has no real noticable improvement(There is the handy instant 
>spellchecker that causes the program to stop accepting input every few 
>seconds. Oh what a great idea!!!).

This was a friend of mine who checks out every computer store in Phoenix 
for the best price before he buys.

Some info for those who didn't know:  Windows requires that all software 
running under it use Windows routines to do everything to be Windows 
compatable. This means that you can't write decent routines that do 
things quickly, but have to use what MS supplies.  For example, AutoCAD 
was very quick in an MS-DOS version, but when the came out with a Windows 
version, their graphics drawing routines suddenly took forever.

As far as spelling checkers, the reason it stops accepting input is that 
after every work it checks the dictionary.  It should, as the word is 
entered, narrow down the search area to where, after 4 or 5 letters, be 
down to just a few hundred words to search.  This method SHOULD be faster 
than doing a spelling check on a document, after all, there is time to 
execute several hundred thousand opcodes between keypresses, even with a 
super-human speed-demon typist.  The process on a 6502 could probably be 
done in a few hundred opcodes, and you wouldn't even notice it on a 1MHz 
Apple // unless you spelled it wrong.  But then, you're running an IBM 
and Windoze, where they write the softare as cheaply and poorly as they can 
and expect the next super-doozie processor to be so fast it might keep up 
with an Apple 1 (yes, I said one!) running equivalent but well written 
software.

I would be willing to bet that if some decently fast Apple // software 
were ported to an IBM (with all the well coded features intact) that it 
would make the IBM look like it was running a 1GigaHertz!

John

--
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John Bowling             |Apple II GS can whip the pants off its little
johnlb@primenet.com      |brother (Mac) any time!
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