jasonl@pro-newfrontier.UUCP (Jason Lindquist) (12/12/88)
Randy- I see your point, but if you take that into consideration, then shouldn't Apple make it a little easier (in many areas, including the wallet) to get a hold of this information. Maybe a note in the regular manuals about how to get copies of the tech manuals? Anytime I want to get a tech/non-idiot manual, I have to run around like an idiot all over the Chicago North Shore to find a bookstore that has anything in the way of Apple Tech manuals! Needless to say, it's a pain. But don't point out anything about B.S. degrees. For those people who can't read a manual (even an idiot manual) enough to find a power switch ought to have their degrees taken back or have the B.S. changed to mean the equivalent of male bovine excrement (I think everyone catches my drift) +------------------------------------------+---------------------------------+ | Jason A. Lindquist | "Just like your father.... | | UUCP: crash!pro-newfrontier!jasonl | so human." | | ARPA: crash!pro-newfrontier!jason@ | | | nosc.mil | "Well, Admiral, it looks like | | INET: jasonl@pronewfrontier.cts.com | i've got all his marbles." | | Proline: jasonl@pro-newfrontier | | +------------------------------------------+---------------------------------+ | The opinions expressed above do not reflect those of my employers, since | | I am unemployed, and they do not reflect those of my parents, since they | | don't care what I say here, and they do not reflect those of Glenbrook | | North High School or any of _its_ employers, since they don't give two | | (naughty word)s about what I do in my spare time. I guess that means that | | what I say here is my own opinion, until I realize that I may be possesed | | and am expressing someone else's opinion. In which case, I won't be any | | the wiser. (nice long .sig, eh?) | +------------------------------------------+---------------------------------+
dkletter@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (12/15/88)
Jason Lindquist <pnet01!pro-newfrontier!jasonl@nosc.mil> writes: > Randy- I see your point, but if you take that into consideration, then > shouldn't Apple make it a little easier (in many areas, including the wallet) > to get a hold of this information. Maybe a note in the regular manuals about > how to get copies of the tech manuals? Someone as knowledgeable as yourself should know that Apple distributes it's technical information through APDA, the Apple Programmer's and Developer's Assocation. If you've been reading the net at all lately, you'll have read that Apple is currently in the process of taking over part of that organization, to distribute its own technical information. This has made it very easy in the past for non-developers located even in the most remote parts of the USA and Canada to receive all available technical information. As for your wallet, your small complaint about the expensive price of manuals is greatly overshadowed by many, many more people complaining about the high price of Apple's CPUs. If you want to include all this tech information with the products, you're boosting the CPU's price even further. This would reduce Apple's market...indeed, people who buy computers today aren't like the customers of the 1970's...most Apple users don't care about technical information anymore...this is a GOOD thing for the industry...don't blame Apple Computer. David Kletter
ALBRO@NIEHS.BITNET (12/22/88)
In reply to David Kletter's comment that Apple buyers of the present are not programmer/hobbiests like those of the 70's and therefore don't need the Apple technical references, may I suggest that those of the 70's weren't either until they read the manuals that came with the Apples in the days of the II+ and were stimulated to BECOME hobbiest/programmers? Apple's current manuals actively DISCOURAGE interest in understanding the machine or the programs. This is a mistake they will pay for in the future when there are few if any new Apple programmers to maintain the program market. Phil Albro
shawn@pnet51.cts.com (Shawn Stanley) (12/24/88)
ALBRO@NIEHS.BITNET writes: >In reply to David Kletter's comment that Apple buyers of the present are not >programmer/hobbiests like those of the 70's and therefore don't need the >Apple technical references, may I suggest that those of the 70's weren't >either until they read the manuals that came with the Apples in the days of >the II+ and were stimulated to BECOME hobbiest/programmers? Apple's current >manuals actively DISCOURAGE interest in understanding the machine or the >programs. This is a mistake they will pay for in the future when there are >few if any new Apple programmers to maintain the program market. > >Phil Albro Just an observation here... when the Apple II appeared in the high schools, we did of course have the earlier versions that started up in monitor mode. This made myself and others rather curious, and we played with things in monitor mode extensively, in addition to hand-assembling little programs. I >think< that booting into monitor mode might have been a motivating factor, silly as it seems. UUCP: {rosevax, crash}!orbit!pnet51!shawn INET: shawn@pnet51.cts.com