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Re: DOC-RAM swapping with MIDI seqs (was 2 questions...)
Mitchell Spector (spector@vax2.concordia.ca) wrote:
: There's only three major limitations that I'm sick of:
: 1) Speed
: 2) Graphics
: 3) Limited Ensoniq DOC-RAM
I'm sick of those exact three also.
: I could live with those, if not for the biggest limitation of
: all -- *software support*! Every month less and less software is becoming
: available, it's sad to think the only new programs I can look forward
: to are a port of Wolfenstein 3-D and a FAX program. :/ Even shareware
A Wolf-3D port? I do hope you're kidding. The fax proggy
sounds excellent, but it's taking way longer than it should:
I'm expecting it to be buggy anyways, so...
: and public-domain support has dropped to nill, expect for the occational
: GNO utility posted to the Binaries. Still, I can't see myself leaving the
GNO utilities, IMHO, don't count. I was waiting to see a port
of csh or even ksh, but mainly, TCP/IP and a new kernal upgrade.
Of course, TCP/IP seems to be in the midst of working (good! This
is an excellent thing, IMHO), but Mr. Bazyar seems to be hindering
the process. This is not such a good thing, IMHO. The kernal up-
grade should be available, last I checked.
: IIgs world anytime soon. I like the system too much and I'm not exactly
: thrilled with the other platform alternatives out there. I'm probably one
: of the few left that still continues to use an Apple IIgs as a main system. :)
Understandable. There's so much the GS *CAN'T* do properly and
decently. Hell, there's not even a decent multitasker out there
for the thing. I've heard all the hoop-la-ha about how the GS
doesn't have some sortof "hardware memory protection." Erm. :-/
: Think of the analogy of a ship: The GS has started to sink and the
: only other ships nearby and afloat are the SS IBM and SS Mac. The SS Mac looks
The SS Mac will die because the company supporting it drops it's
own hardware faster than leaves in autumn.
: very new and luxurious, but once you step on-board the crew shoves you below
: deck and won't say what's happening or where your going, they'll be in charge.
Correct.
: The crew are of the former SS Apple II, who suddenly abaddonned ship and went
: to the SS Mac -- and before doing so made the "hole" that caused the ship to
: start sinking in the first place. Next we have the SS IBM, an old rusty barge
: that's been refit with dozens of modifications to keep it afloat. You can't
: see this right away as on top is a plastic hull to make it appear as luxurious
: as the SS Mac. All sorts of new technology is onboard the old barge, though it
: has problems existing with the old. There's basically no crew, once you get on
: board you have steer and control the old ship yourself. Meanwhile, both the SS
: Mac and SS IBM are heading towards a large iceberg ahead and don't seem to
: really care, believing they're invincisible! As for myself, rather than aban-
: don ship, I think I'll stay aboard the SS Apple II longer with the help of
: some water pumping devices (ZipGS, RF SCSI, HD, RAM, Second Sight/TurboRez) &
: try & make it to the rescue ship ahead just beyond that iceberg. Why pay pass-
: age fare aboard the other two ships if they're probably going to sink and I
: don't like their passenger quarters anyways? :-)
Keep in mind one thing: by staying with the SS Apple II, by the
time you're ready to board, you won't have any $ left in your
wallet for a ticket. Get my drift? Sorry, but a SCSI card on the
PC isn't more than $50 (last I checked), IDE HDs are super-cheap
(same w/ controller cards), RAM is another story totally (very
spendy, on both machines)... and then, there's the video cards.
Well, I can get a NEW Trident SVGA 1024x768x256 card for around
$25-$30. Compare this to the SS, which is, what, $180? Come on.
You can't make a living off the undead, if you know what I mean.
: Once it's available, the Second Sight (or TR) will make this
: point irrevelant to those that can afford it. Coincidentally, this
: January I'll have owned a IIgs for 7 years...hard to believe it!
There's one problem: people w/out the video cards won't be
able to use the "cool" software. It's like making software
which requires a 486; you can't make the 386, 286, or XT users
happy. It sucks.
I owned my GS for 8 years (January 21st will make 8 years), so...
: Your greatly underestimating yourself! Much of your software
: just about reached the same level of quality as FTA.
I hear this so often it's making me laugh. *MY* personal soft-
ware never has. Maybe Maxx of Digital Exodus's stuff reached
that (in my opinion, gone beyond) point, but not my own.
: I can understand how discouraging this is, but there is a
: large majority of users out there that *greatly admired* what you wrote!
: It's too bad most of them have been silent and only the negative users
: made themselves vocal to you. :|
I guess I have to deal with what I get. I guess some people
figure their way of showing "their approval" is by $: I never
want $ for my software, nor will I ever, so...
: A Game Boy emulator would be very interesting to see! And based on
: the work you've done in the past (even if that only includes two CDAs and
: a demo) I feel you'd have the potential to pull this off.
It's not too hard, to tell you the truth. You'd have to write a
Z80 interpreter, which I already started. Not too difficult, but
it's a big lookup table, i'll tell you that much. Since the thing
is only 4 colours (and i'll flame anyone who says "but it's in
black-and-white!" - remember, gray IS a colour), the 16/s-line
limit wouldn't be a problem. Resolution may, but I doubt it.
: Sorry to disagree with your beliefs, but the words "terrible",
: "awful" or even "this is average" ever crossed my mind when first viewing
: your software. I feel "awesome" better described most of it.
The star scroller was actually more difficult than QP II, to
tell you the truth. Controlling the SCC isn't as hard as it
may seem.
: It certainly disappoints me. There are (and have been) many mediocre
: IIgs programmers around, you've _not_ been one of them. And unlike them when
: they disappear, you'll be leaving a void behind. Can't beg you to stay, it's
: your choice, but if you are truely leaving, don't go thinking you were a bad
: programmer or that your existing software wasn't appreciated -- it WAS!
Lemme put it into terms which i'm sure everyone out there will
nod and agree with, because it's TRUE, if you really think about it:
If a programmer says "Hey! I'm a good programmer!" he/she is consid-
ered a fluke, a hoax, a liar... they're then known as "the wanna-be
programmer who thinks they know everything and the best way to do
it," getting comments of "if you think you're so good, write {xxxx}
then, smart-ass!"
If a programmer says "I'm terrible," they do get more attention,
but most would say "Damn right."
I've noticed this exists in a few computer-communities: The Amiga
community, the II community, and the network (UNIX, if you may)
based community. Well, I don't own an Amiga (though i'd like to),
i've been part of the II community for a long time, and I guess I
qualify as a network (UNIX and/or Novell in this case) junkie since I
do write Novell-network programs in 80x86ASM.
The thing is, i'm just personally tired of getting ridiculed from
those who insist they DO know it all (I could name names, but
that'd be childish, and i'm not willing to drop to that level).
The TRUTH is, they don't know it all, nor do I. That's sortof how
it works; someone may know how to use shadowing to do some awesome
things while I know how to use DMA on the SNES to bring up a GIF
on your television screen.
This is what I want... you can beg, i'm not stopping you... I
don't think there's anything anyone can do to bring me back this
time. I honestly hate to LEAVE, but it seems to me there's more
pleasure in leaving than their is being beaten with a blunt stick
of words.
I had my fun. It's time for me to move on, like I said. Thanks
for all the good times, bad times, and all those inbetween.
--
| Jeremy 'Yoshi' Chadwick | ______ ___ ___ ___ ______ |
| yoshi@CSOS.ORST.EDU | |: \| | |: | |: |/ | |
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