Re: All this fuss about Backward Compatibility

[nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates)]

In article <55fuot$nsh@elna.ethz.ch>,
Henrik 'Ratte' Gudat <GUDATH@EZINFO.VMSMAIL.ETHZ.CH> wrote:
>I don't understand all the talk about why Amigas are (were) better than Apple
>II*, what real-world advantage GS users have been enjoying thanks to the GS'
>color display, etc.

   Well, it's highly ironic that these people show up, since the
chipset that let the Amiga do its graphics was first marketed to
*Apple*, not Commiedore. This was after Apple had been bitten by the
public's rejection of the Apple III, which Apple blamed in part on the
technological prowess of the A3. [A computer that doesn't work and
needs to be dropped on the desk is a _far_ more realistic reason, not
to mention the trying to shaft the A2 'emulation' mode in the A3]

   Apple chose the technologically safe alternative of making the //e
only an incremental step over the ][+, adding in 16K more memory,
lowercase, and support for 128K. The chipset was sold to others, who
developed the the Amiga line. [Apparently this chipset takes params in
6502/etc little-endian format, while the 68000 is big-endian, which
caused a number of quirks for Amiga democoders.]

   But, this whole discussion has been between a few Mac advocates who
seem to believe that Apple can do no wrong in whatever it does
(without accepting the very real shortcomings in the systems, but even
reject Mac clones because 'the cases look ugly' and other gunk), and
those of us who point out that Apple has made a *lot* of boneheaded
moves over the years, in addition to producing some real nice
machines.

   Nothing's perfect in this world, especially when marketing and
personality forces are involved. Being realistic about the faults of
systems, admitting them, and encouraging them to do better next time
is a good first step.

   However, as long as there are computers, there will be holy wars
about hardware, OSs, and anything else. I'm not sure this debate'll be
settled in my lifetime, but I stand up for being realistic and
pragmatic about things. Sure, I'll rub a few "Macs can do no wrong"
types, but they'll need to be shot down sooner or later.

Nathan Mates
--
<*> Nathan Mates http://www.visi.com/~nathan/      <*>
# What are the facts? Again and again and again-- what are the _facts_?
# Shun wishful thinking, avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors
# think-- what are the facts, and to how many decimal places?  -R.A. Heinlein