chuq@sun.uucp (Chuq Von Rospach) (01/04/86)
Well, the year is out (both calendar and my first year of owning this little
beastie), the next round of product announcements is coming shortly, and I
thought it might be a good time to take a step back and look at the Mac over
the past year.
1985 was the year the Mac left the "gosh wow" stage and started holding its
own in the real world. It is showing itself not just to be a neat toy, but a
serious machine that will reshape future generations. Like all pioneers, there
have been some misteps, but to date there haven't been any fatal screwups.
Not that the Mac is perfect, mind you, and chances are that something will
come along to make it obsolete (soon, and it isn't out yet, contrary to Amiga
and Atari fans) but the Mac will take the fanfare as the pathburner into the
next generation (with a footnote to Xerox where it really belongs... Such is
the reality of the marketplace.)
1985 highs
o The new finder -- just to prove that the Mac isn't inherently slow
o Switcher -- A marvel that will really come into its own with more
memory and a decent disk storage.
o Excel -- proving the Mac can deal with serious business with the rest of
them
1985 lows
o heat related failures, caused by Steve Jobs insistence on a quiet,
fanless machine and a lack of proper engineering towards cooling.
o initial memory crunches for small macs
o performance problems with the early finder, and the lack of an Apple
supported self-hosting development environment (which just goes to
show the lesson the industry should have learned by now -- if you
don't use it, it don't work right. Apple used Lisa's to build the Mac,
which didn't make the Mac work right but sure did a lot of good making
decent Lisa's, which they cancelled.)
1985 books
My library started out empty, and ended up full. I didn't even TRY to buy
everything, just the things that looked useful. Now, in relative order of
usefulness, a quick review of the books you ought to keep an eye on:
o Using the Macintosh Toolbox with C (Sybex, Takatsuka, et al) ****
the only book that is independent of Inside Mac, and the first decent
description of doing serious work that doesn't rely on Lisa Pascal. A
good alternative to 90% of the IM verbiage.
o Inside Mac (Apple, various versions, final version at a theater or
drive in near you Real Soon Now) ***
Required reading for serious hackers, I hope they translate it into
english for the final version.
o Macintosh manuals (Apple) *** except for Macpaint *
The way computer manuals ought to be written, for a computer that
doesn't really need them (but definitely deserves them...) Macpaint
manual is as frustrating as Macpaint itself is because of breaks from
the standard and excessive lack of information (macpaint does as much
as macwrite, and is documented in about 10% of the wordage -- augh!)
o Macintosh Revealed, Volume ][ (Hayden, Chernicoff) ***
good practical programming guide, you ought to have IM around as well
but you won't need it much. too bad it had to use Lisa Pascal instead
of a native system....
o The Apple Macintosh Book, second edition (Microsoft, Lu) ***
The book about the Mac to have, tells you everything you want to know
about the Mac that the Mac manuals don't say. Doesn't pull punches or
gushes indiscriminately.
o Macintosh Revealed, Volume I (Hayden, Chernicoff) ***-
Good introduction to the Mac for the uninitiated, not a lot of meat
on the bones as far as heavy technical detail.
o Programming the Macintosh in Assembly Language (Sybex, Coffron) **
Don't hide IM, and try to ignore the fact that most of the book was
copied unchanged from a CPM/68K version of the book. Explains all
68000 instructions. High point is a skeleton application written as a
set of assembly macros -- it allows you get up quickly and rewrite or
enhance sections as you need to. Low point is where it calls the
bubble sort an advanced programming technique.
Dishonorable mentions: MacBook, Macintosh Pascal programming (mainly
because of the limitations of MacPascal and the non-toolbox interface),
and "Macintosh, appliance of the future" (terribly out of date and gushy).
1985 Magazine
The next year is when the magazines will either prove themselves or die. A few
definitely deserve to live, others should die...
o MacTutor(***) - a great source for techie information, suffering from
a current inability to convert from a hackerzine to a real
professional magazine. If it can figure out how to do what it did when
it was small, it'll be a killer.
o MacUser(***) - This is trying to be what Macworld should have been. If
they pull it off, I'll send in a life subscription, happily. Early
issues have kept up with the promise of the first.
o MacWorld(**-) - a bit gushy and preachy, short on serious technical
information and hardnosed reviews. Starting to remind me of Byte.
o Nibble Mac (*) - if you like to play with trivial Basic programs, maybe.
Disonhourable mentions -- Iconcepts, A+
1985 Software
I'm only going to talk about the stuff I have actually used -- with this
exception. 1985 was the year of Jazz, and Lotus blew it with a second rate
product. Fortunately, Excel seems to have done what Lotus should have done,
the Mac is saved for business and life is wonderful.
o Consulair Mac C (****)
Version 4.0 brought this into the realm of a professional quality.
Having been in from Version 1.0, I've seen this product mature from a
gleem in the authors eye to a work of Art. In some ways, it outstrips
the machine it runs on, because the only problems are those caused by
a lack of disk space and memory. The linker does what the MDS linker
always should have done, and would have if Apple had let him do it
(Bill Duvall, author of Mac C, also wrote the MDS)
o Microsoft Word (***)
Paying extra for a word processor on a system that ships one free may
seem silly, but that is only true if you've never used Word. The
difference between a manual and electric typewriter.
o Ensemble (***)
an integrated database. If you need to play with spreadsheets, buy
something else. If you need to play with words and facts and data,
Ensemble fits the bill nicely.
o Mac Project (**+)
A great idea carried out in a good way. Rough edges (especially the
inability to reformat the chart automatically when you make major
revisions) but a big step forward from the days of graph paper. Also
makes a good mapping aid for Zork.
o Apple Macintosh Development System (**)
The first development system for the Mac had no compiler, an ancient
loader, and suffered from the problems of any system that wasn't used
for self-hosting purposes in development. With Mac C being MDS
compatible, you don't need to spend money on a less-useful subset.
o MacTerminal (**)
A workhorse terminal package showing its age. Release 2.0, promised
for October may fix its bugs, but it'll still be a workhorse. I'll
probably use it until I die (or it does) since I already have it, but
it isn't a bargain anymore.
Dishonorable mention: Macpaint. Breaks every Apple interface standard you
can think of. For all of its power, I find the things it WON'T let me do
to be exceptionally aggravating. Hopefully Apple will see the light
someday and rewrite it to their own specs. Still better by lightyears than
things on other machines, but imagine what it COULD be like.
1985 games
And now the stuff you've been waiting for -- the games.
o Wizardry(****+) - I actually was able to buy a copy. It exists. Really.
(finally) Worth the wait, the game the Mac was built for. Lots of very
subtle design hacks went into this game making it a joy to play and
the game EVERY software designer should study as a practical on how to
write for the Mac. Every action you take causes a logical prediction
on your next action (where practical) allowing you to minimize mouse
movements and clicks in a logical and intuitive way. The game actually
helps you play, and stays out of the way the rest of the time.
o Loderunner(***) - an early arrival for the Mac, still a great use of the
system and fun to play.
o Zork (I through III) (***) - they ignore the user interfact, but who
cares?
o Rogue (**) - not as good as the Unix better, a good game with a faulty
translation to the Mac.
Dishonourable mention: Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (In the long run,
randomness works better than thinking)
Of course, this is only the stuff I've seen. Feel free to disagree or add to
the list (this beats trying to save all my reviews for the last year, no?
*grin*)
--
:From catacombs of Castle Tarot: Chuq Von Rospach
sun!chuq@decwrl.DEC.COM {hplabs,ihnp4,nsc,pyramid}!sun!chuq
It's not looking, it's heat seeking.guest@ccivax.UUCP (What's in a name ?) (01/08/86)
> Well, the year is out (both calendar and my first year of owning this little > beastie), the next round of product announcements is coming shortly, and I > thought it might be a good time to take a step back and look at the Mac over > the past year. > > ... > This was a really nice article and hearty thanx to Chuq for taking the time to write it. One comment and three additions are hearby added: 1. I would not give MacProject the same high marks that Chuq did. It has some serious drawbacks that make it difficult for medium to large scale business use. Witness: no automatic way to format the network diagram means that a large portion of the planner's time is used in trying to make the network readable, and the inability to create sub-networks and then to display the master network at a chosen level of detail. This latter feature would make it possible for members of the project team to plan their part of the process and the project manager could then integrate these into his/her master schedule. "Micro Planner", the other Mac project manager cures the first of these ills according to its literature. 2. (*****) ThinkTank 512 This planning tool in my (humble) opinion is one of the best software packages I have ever seen. 3. (****) HyperDrive If one is lucky enough to have this fantastic product installed correctly by your dealer, your mac becomes, in a word, AWESOME! I'm not quite sure how anyone could sell any other hard drive for the mac in a single user environment. 4. (****) Fokker Triplane Although this isn't as feature packed as the MS Flight Sim, the "feel" is no comparison. This is really fun and it feels like you are flying (no drugs in use at the time). 5. (*****) USENET,ARPANET,etc. Though this is not a "product" per se, it should be added as a high point for '85. This network has greatly increased my enjoyment of the mac. My personal gratitude goes to all of its contributors. PLEASE DON'T STOP POSTING. Sam Mantel -- Rochester, NY "six-pointed star goes here"