Ian vs. The GS Community

[bazyar@netcom.com (Jawaid Bazyar)]

irsman@drift.winternet.com (Ian Schmidt) writes:

>I seriously doubt there'll be any great support for this board, especially
>something as large-scale as a game, and if there is you'd better believe
>they'd want GS sound.  I really think that a board like this is an incredibly
>bad idea at this point in the GS life cycle, for a couple of good reasons:

  I could have crushed you right here, but I told myself I would not
engage in ad hominem, as you did.
  
>1) All the really good game programmers left years ago (Steve Chiang, 
>Jason Andersen, John Brooks, Ryan Ridges, John Lund, the SpaceFox guys, etc)

  What's your point?  I hope noone is expecting "Doom" here (and I
doubt anyone is). It's just a nice improvement for the GS, and there
will be lots of ways to exploit it. As a matter of fact, I have already
received one committment for a game to be done for Second Sight, pending
a few details. 

>2) We're finally getting some decent software that exploits the GS's built
>in capabilities (the FLI and GL viewers, Prism, ImageQuant, MOD players, etc).
>Is it such a good idea to fragment the remaining opportunities for programmers?

  I'd hardly call four subroutine calls to support 256-color images 
"fragmentation".

>3) GNO/ME's been around several years and still has glaring holes in it's
>capabilities despite a minor horde of talent (James Brookes, Robert Hill,
>Soenke Behrens, Phillip Vandry, Jason Perez, Derek Taubert, and a lot more)
>working on it.  Now imagine the support for a board which entails a minimum
>investment (assuming you dont have a PC or are unwilling to swap cables
>all day) in the $400 range (for a cheapo 14" no-brand or CTX that'll blow out
>in 2 weeks anyway), when GNO/ME is only $89.

  Whether I do or do not work on GNO/ME, ever again, is none of your
concern. You seem awfully concerned about how I spend my time, Ian, and I 
can't for the life of me figure out why.

  Second, you've forgotten (or never bothered to find out) that the board 
works with a regular Apple RGB monitor. Further, a good number of people
already have PC monitors that they can use, or need to replace their
failing Apple RGB monitors.

>Now, I know the Pollyanna Patrol (consisting mainly of LTC and of course
>Jawaid himself, who must rationalize this board lest GNO users become angry
>about the lack of 2.0.5 or 2.1 this is causing) is gonna flame me good, but
>I don't really see any factual refutation for the above 3 points.

  I don't have time to explain the state of the world to someone
whose eyes are closed. I also don't have time for your petty insults
and psychologizing. I am beginning to remember some harsh words that
Joe Kohn once wrote, and am beginning to understand what he meant
when he wrote them.

  Ian, I don't know what your problem is, but if the only thing you can
do for the GS community now is gripe about how stupid I am for working
on a VGA card (it's not even _me_ that's paying for development, for
Christ's sake!) that hundreds of people have expressed great interest in,
then I certainly don't care to hear it, and I seriously doubt anyone
else does, either.

  If you interpret this as a flame, that's your problem. I hope I 
retained enough control to make this what I wanted; i.e., a simple
statement of facts in the face of a vicious attack.  

-- 
 Jawaid Bazyar              |   Like UNIX? Like your Apple IIGS? Then ask
 Procyon, Inc.              |   me about GNO/ME for the Apple IIgs!   
 bazyar@netcom.com          |   P.O Box 620334
 --Apple II Forever!--      |   Littleton, CO 80162-0334   (303) 781-3273