Re: SIS (was: Q: AppleTalk GS to MacSE)

[Paul Schultz <pschultz@med.wayne.edu>]

On 3 Jul 1997, Mitchell Spector wrote:

> 
>     I remember back to 1990-91, that was roughly the time all major
> companies dropped support of the IIgs. By 1992 freelance programmers
> stepped and not only picked up the ball, but starting pushing the
> capabilities of the GS to its limits! Remember DreamGrafix, GNO/ME,
> Pointless, HardPressed, System 6, NoiseTracker, Twilight II, Kanagroo,
> HyperStudio 3, or even games like Spacefox, Gate, Out of This World
> and DuelTris? Those (and many, many more excellent programs I'm
> forgetting) were all released during 1992 and 1993. I felt optimistic
> about the GS then, so much so I even started heavily upgrading mine.
> But then shortly after that, it was like everyone started falling
> asleep again, and stopped programming, everything started going
> downhill. Where are all the GS programmers now?
> 

Mitchell,

I think that the problem you mention above is attributable to the
fact that the last group of young programmers who learned to code
on a IIgs as kids in high school finally graduated from college
in 1992-94. Now, I'm afraid, the well has run dry. Young people
no longer have a IIgs at home (and they are fast being replaced
in many public schools).

The last group of young programmers was the group that got fired
up when GNO 2.0 first came out. Sadly, this is the group that
I consider the last batch of youngsters who actually brought a
IIgs with them when they entered college. I dare say it would
be quite rare to see a young budding computer programmer bringing
a IIgs to a college campus these days.

New IIgs software died down when this last group started getting
jobs in the real world and could no longer spend the time needed
to produce the cutting edge IIgs software we saw in the early
90's (examples of which you mentioned in your post). I also
believe that this may be one of the reasons why GS/TCP has yet
to see a public release.

Paul.

pschultz@med.wayne.edu
Paul Schultz