rs.miller@pro-newfrontier.UUCP (Randy Miller) (12/12/88)
Jason, Unfortunately, SOME of us are not as hardware and software inclined as you are. The market has changed since the late 70's. Nowadays, most people who purchase a computer are not inclined on learning how to program it: they just want something to 1) entertain the kids 2) help Johnny with his homework 3)help me run my business 4) help me straighten out my books, etc. I used to work support for a major publisher of microcomputer based library mamagement systems. (I'm still employed there, but am now in a different department.) About 8 out of 10 support calls I received the end user DIDN'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO TURN THE COMPUTER ON!!! Mind you, these are people with B.S. in Education, and some even had Master's degrees! Also, what do you think User groups are for? Even at this level most could care less about programming. So, before you lambaste Apple for the "idiot-proofing" of their software and manuals, THINK OF THE MARKET THEY'RE WORKING WITH. We all can't be 65xx(x) or 80x8x or 680x0 hacks. Randy rs.miller
c60c-3aw@e260-3d.berkeley.edu (Andy McFadden) (12/14/88)
In article <8812112236.AA17022@crash.cts.com> pnet01!pro-sol!pro-ascii!pro-newfrontier!rs.miller@nosc.mil writes: > Unfortunately, SOME of us are not as hardware and software inclined as you >are. The market has changed since the late 70's. Nowadays, most people who >purchase a computer are not inclined on learning how to program it: they just Why not throw all the manuals in? The original Apple // was sold with the "idiot" manuals as well as the "techy" manuals. They weren't formatted as "nicely" (severe sarcasm), so they were only about 50% as big. >want something to 1) entertain the kids 2) help Johnny with his homework >3)help me run my business 4) help me straighten out my books, etc. I used to The Apple // was sold for a LOOOOOONG time as a VisiCalc machine. Sounds a lot like the above... nowadays, Apple is pushing the Macintosh for the higher education market (i.e., college students). Apple want's Johnny to do his homework on a Mac... [stuff removed...] >About 8 out of 10 support calls I received the end user DIDN'T EVEN KNOW HOW >TO TURN THE COMPUTER ON!!! Mind you, these are people with B.S. in Education, [more stuff removed...] Good. Give them a clear, concise, 10 page manual for how to turn the power on and off (that's about what you get with any of their overpriced peripherals). If Apple doesn't think we want to program, why give us an Applesoft manual with the computer? Why not sell it as a two-volume set for $50 each? >Randy >rs.miller A side note... there were some rumors that Apple had decreased the speed of the //gs+ because of pressure from 3rd party developers making accelerator boards (hello, AE?) I hope this isn't true... a faster speed made somewhat standard would at least double the software market; most developers really can't develop some products (esp games) because they are just too slow... -- fadden@zen.berkeley.edu [crashed] c60c-3aw@widow.berkeley.edu (Andy McFadden) "If the //gs+ is everything it's cracked up to be, I'll shut my mouth for a while..."
gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn ) (12/14/88)
In article <18236@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> c60c-3aw@e260-3d.berkeley.edu (Andy McFadden) writes: >Why not throw all the manuals in? Well, for one thing they weren't ready when the IIGS came to market. For another, they would occupy a box about as big as the CPU box and add immensely to the base price. The IIGS documentation, when it finally became ready, was pretty thorough; note that the IIGS is incredibly more complex than the original Apple II, and it really does take many volumes to cover all its technical details. >A side note... there were some rumors that Apple had decreased the speed of >the //gs+ because of pressure from 3rd party developers making accelerator >boards (hello, AE?) I hope this isn't true... a faster speed made somewhat >standard would at least double the software market; most developers really >can't develop some products (esp games) because they are just too slow... I rather think Apple isn't likely to cripple their own products in order to help other companies sell theirs! There are many possible reasons for limiting system speed; for example, it may cut the cost of cache or main memory substantially. I don't believe the comment about games. I've compared King's Quest IV on an IBM PC clone and my IIGS; animation speed was comparable. Also consider games like Alien Mind, which is quite fast. Certainly we can use more speed, but it isn't all that horrible.