Re: Big Text Machine press release

[jlcooper@sacam.OREN.ORTN.EDU (Jonathan L Cooper)]

Philip McDunnough (philip@utstat.toronto.edu) wrote:
>
>One reads along and it all seems nice until you note that this does not
>support the GS. This is most distressing. When will people realize that 
>only supporting AppleII's spells the end for the whole bunch, including 
>the GS. I don't want to say this again, but the AppleIIe is the 8080 of 
>computing. It has no sound, is probably not up to Tandy graphics of 8 years

Hey, Phil, don't knock the 8080!  my CompuColor II is still out here
chugging along, and it's got what i consider to be some of the coolest
computer games of all time.  (if i could program, i'd port them, but it's
been years since i've written any code.)

>ago, etc...Why would someone want programs on a computer that has poor
>graphics, no sound, basically poor mouse support, etc...

because there are so many of them still in use.  there are people out
there who are just not interested in upgrading to a gs.
 
>Now, to include support for both the IIe and the GS, via "fat binaries" 
>would be much better. I'm really discouraged by this view that educational
>programs should be written only for the IIe and below. It signs the end of
>the GS for many and only serves in moving people faster towards the PC and/or
>Amiga, both of which are far superior to an AppleII.

as far as i'm concerned, the only possible redemption for the pc is to run
some type of unix on it, since ms-dos is roughly as advanced as prodos 8. 
i'm going to be very interested in seeing how many people buy nextstep for
their pcs.

the amiga has near zero visibility in the marketplace.  unless you're
running a small tv station, you probably don't know too many people who
own one.

the next time i buy a machine, it'll probably be something powerpc based. 
those have the potential to be interesting, and to correct the mistakes
that were made on the mac.  who knows, someone might even write a gs
emulator for it.

>Philip McDunnough
>philip@utstat.toronto.edu

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Jonathan Cooper                   |	If all the world's a stage,
jlcooper@sacam.oren.ortn.edu      |	what am I doing in the 
jon.cooper@lambada.oit.unc.edu    |	light booth?
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