lagache@violet.berkeley.edu (Edouard Lagache) (04/17/88)
I am a disgruntled owner of a somewhat compatible PC, who is
bucking up against MS-DOS memory limit. The application where I am
encountering this limit is Artificial Intelligence programming in
PROLOG (Lord knows what I would have to in LISP!), and "aboveboard"
memory switching banks or other simple fixes are not going to cut it
due to speed considerations.
I have been looking that the microcomputer market, and I am not
pleased with what I see. Basically I have 3 choices:
1.) OS/2, 2.) UNIX, 3.) Macintosh.
1.) OS/2 exists (barely), but does there exist a PROLOG that runs on
OS/2? My applications will require a windowing interface, when
will the windowing interface show up? When will a PROLOG show up
that will support the windowing interface that has yet to show up?
Finally, OS/2 exists for IBM PS/2 and other pricey machines.
When will OS/2 come for cheapy clones that makes the move
worthwhile.
2.) UNIX? Great! Go out and buy a SUN-3 and you are all set. Except
for the question of who is going to pay for it. A PROLOG? Sure,
plunk down your 8200 bucks and you can get a great UNIX PROLOG
(windowing interface is extra).
3.) Macintosh? Well lets see. Any Mac can be loaded up to 4 Megs of
RAM, and a PROLOG exists for it right now for about $250. Windows
do come with the machine, and even the PROLOG supports them.
There is gobs of software that is working now, and even a Mac II
with educational discounts is no worse than one of those IBM PS/2.
The situation looks fairly obvious to me, buy a Mac. Well, all
you PC aficionados out there, what is wrong the above reasoning? For
the sake of sanity of the net, please direct you comments directly to
me. I will post a summary to the SIG if there is enough interest.
Edouard Lagache
lagache@violet.berkeley.edu
P.S. I should add that the software I am developing is intended for
educational markets which is dominated by which computer company?wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew) (04/20/88)
<< not cheap >> I don't have the Macintosh prices on hand, but I do have a list from the local IBM dealer. His joe public price for the PS/2 model 80 with 2 megs of 32 bit RAM and the IBM Rochester 70 meg drive is $4,756. Eduational price is about 10% less than that! Can you say fire sale? Sure, I knew you could. It's "only" the crummy old 16 MHz :-) version, but what the hay?... Last time I looked, a similarly dec'ed out (that's a pun) Mac II would have been about $750 more -- and that is with the educational price. Anybody know if Apple has lowered its prices a bit lately?.. Like I said, I don't have Apple's very recent prices, so please elaborate rather than blow-torching, if you must... I left cost of video monitors out of the above figuring, since it would be about the same either way. --Bill