Re: Apple II vs Atari 800

["Ensor" <none@localhost>]

Hi,

  > Actually, Atari jealously guarded the secrets of the chipset
  >in the 400/800 until it was obvious that the system would only
  >survive with 3rd party software support....

The technical reference manuals were available pretty early on, in the UK at 
least (though we got the machines a couple of years after the US). On top of 
that they even went to the trouble of creating the "Atari Program Exchange" 
(APX) to encourage the creation and distribution of user generated software.

Plainly the actions of a company "jealously guarding" it's secrets.

The technical details of their consoles (VCS/7800/Jaguar) were always kept 
secret, but the micros were "open books".

Some of us actually lived through those years....

  >....Even the Atari Assembler cartridge comes with horrible
  >documentation that doesn't even scratch the surface of what
  >you need to create usable software.

First piece of software I bought for my Atari....

The documentation assumes you have the technical reference manuals, and as 
such is more than sufficient for its intended audience. I certainly had no 
trouble with it!


  TTFN - Pete.