armstron@sjuvax.UUCP (armstrong) (01/26/84)
Well, after months and months of waiting I finally got a glimpse of the MACINTOSH. While I was extremely impressed with what it could do, I was also dissappointed by what it couldn't do. What I mean is ... with no internal slots, and as of yet (to the best of my knowledge) no means of programming the machine, (and more appropriately the mouse, and 68000 MPU) it is not quite the dream of a hacker ... or even an experience programmer who likes to see himself tested once in a while. I don't know .. is it just me, or does anyone else out there have similiar feeling on the subject. I would really like to here from anyone who has seen the MAC and gotten either similiar, or different feelings. Respond either by mail or via the net. I think the topic is applicable. Thanks, Len Armstrong St. Joseph's University.
sdh@rabbit.UUCP (S. Hawley) (01/27/84)
What one should take into consideration about the macintosh before attcking it from the hacker aspect, is that Apple is not trying to put out machines for hobbyists anymore. The macintosh is supposed to be the first generation of very easy to use, friendly machines. This does two things. It spreads the use of the computer to a wider audience. That's the positive part. The bad part is that the gap between a user and a programmer is ever widening. I think the end result may well be, to a large extent, two groups of people: People who bothered to learn programming before user friendly machines (and will probably be money makers) and people who are whizzes at using what is created for them (these people will probably be managers). Its a little pessimistic, sure, but it seems that Apple is telling less and less about its machines. I wanted to work with graphics on someone elses apple ///, but the manuals said close to nothing about how the screen is memory mapped. Its fine for the businessperson, but not programmers. "Life.. don't talk to me about life" -Marvin Steve Hawley
brucec@orca.UUCP (Bruce Cohen) (01/30/84)
----------------------------- Before all the hackers go running off yelling about the Mac's lack of expansion slots, etc., remember that the Mac has a big brother: Lisa II. The rumored price sounds right ($3500 w/o hard disk, $5500 with), the memory is expandable, and there are stories of Unix and C compilers, if that's your thing. My local dealer says that Lisa II will be shipped to dealers in about a month. Bruce Cohen UUCP: ...!teklabs!tekecs!brucec CSNET: tekecs!brucec@tektronix ARPA: tekecs!brucec.tektronix@rand-relay
bees@druxy.UUCP (DavisRB) (02/03/84)
My local dealer already has Lisa 2. His retail price list is:
LISA 2 $3495
LISA 2/5 $4495
LISA 2/10 $5495
All these have 512k RAM and the 400K microfloppy. The /5 and /10 refer
to 5 mb or 10 mb hard-disk. The 5 is external and the 10 is internal
and uses the one parallel port. 1/2 mb RAM expansion is $1495.
The documentation (system overview) claims Microsoft XENIX and
UniPress UniPlus+ are available. I assume C comes with them,
at least with XENIX. It also claims "MS-DOS (future)".
The Lisa 2 is capable of running Mac software, so it looks like an
excellent prospect for Mac software development. From what I've
seen (which isn't much) the standard Lisa OS is well suited for
this kind of development with their Pascal package. It would be
nice if there was a C compiler available under the Lisa OS, too.
I would suggest reading the new magazine Macworld (Premier Issue)
that recently came out. It is loaded with information about the
Mac and why it is the way it is. My impression is that the Mac
is the neatest thing since the release of the IBM-PC. And I am
one that thought Apple was all washed up!
Ray Davis AT&T Information Systems Laboratories Denver
{ihnp4|hogpc}!druxy!bees (303)538-3991