manes@vger.nsu.edu (10/10/90)
Greetings one and all! I am very curious as to what the world here in netland thinks of Commodore's product - AmigaVision. I have done several large programs in AmigaVision and find it to be a excellent program, in fact, 1.53g (the current version) is fairly bug free). I think that AmigaVision is going to push the world to take the Amiga seriously as a multimedia platform. I am not sure if you realize this or not, but Commodore hired IMSATT Corp to write AmigaVision. IMSATT Corp. is a company that produces multimedia solutions for the Fortune 500. Anyway I am curious of YOUR opinion. I read Mark B.'s comments and have sent him mail. -mark= manes@vger.nsu.edu
yamanaka@cv.sony.co.jp (Brian YAMANAKA) (10/11/90)
In response to the question "What do you think of AmigaVision," I must
say that it is an good product with a lot of features. BUT after
having just attending the International Multi-Media Show in Tokyo, I
find that the Mac has some truly exciting ideas for multi-media.
The interface on AmigaVision while easy to program with doesn't hold
up to products I have seen at the show. I'm not putting down the
developers of AmigaVision - the work put into it was well done - I
just want to make several suggestions.
First of all I think that it is necessary to represent icons by the
actual data that they represent. Picture icons should be a small
version of the image, sound icons may have an image of the sound wave,
and live images sould also have an icon (perhaps via something like
A-Live!) All of the Mac products I saw provide these features. Secondly, we
need hyper-links! This is something that no multi-media product will
live without (at lest in the presentation market).
The Amiga is still one of the best platforms to deliver the
presentation. The Mac without DMA cannot handle moving large pieces
of data and the programs had noticeable scroll-lag with large graphic
images. I think the weakest link is in the types of human-interfaces
people have been leaning towards. The other guys are catching up fast
in the Mac market so Commodore should put a lot of work in helping
developers to create programs with great interfaces and that use all
of the features of the Amiga.
One last point, I've tried to use the dBase feature of AVison and
found it lacking in many commands. Especially in the market of search
criteria. The method of suing icons seems very awkward for this
process. I hope that someone will expand the database features and
incorperate the aforementioned hyper-links.
I hope that this will help get some people really thinking at
Commodore at how they will approach the multi-media market. Speaking
for myself they are not doing enough to push it's ability and rallying
the support of software developers in this field. Apple does a gret
job of supporting their developers, and gets the co-operation of other
companies to help them in the design of their products. I think
Commodore should consider or work more hard towards creating
relationships with developers and provide many tools for them.
I've said more than enough so let the discussion begin.
Brian
yamanaka@cv.sony.jp <----I think. I've only been here a week and it's
all Japanese to me.
--
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Brian YAMANAKA
Sony Corporation, Consumer Video Group
Email: yamanaka@cv.sony.co.jpmanes@vger.nsu.edu (10/11/90)
In article <YAMANAKA.90Oct11190605@fairlady.cv.sony.co.jp>, yamanaka@cv.sony.co.jp (Brian YAMANAKA) writes: > In response to the question "What do you think of AmigaVision," I must > say that it is an good product with a lot of features. BUT after > having just attending the International Multi-Media Show in Tokyo, I > find that the Mac has some truly exciting ideas for multi-media. ^^^^^ Perhaps this is a key word. Ideas does not equate to availability does it? Lots of ideas don't make it into commercial applications. What product are you refering to? > > > First of all I think that it is necessary to represent icons by the > actual data that they represent. Picture icons should be a small > version of the image, sound icons may have an image of the sound wave, > and live images sould also have an icon (perhaps via something like > A-Live!) All of the Mac products I saw provide these features. Secondly, we > need hyper-links! This is something that no multi-media product will > live without (at lest in the presentation market). As far as icons representing the images / sounds etc. goes, though that sounds like a neat display kinda thing it would add to the confusion not to the usefulness of the display. I do think improvement should be made so that the contents of the icons are easier to display in a "big picture" type of format. I agree that hyperlinks need to be added. However it is important to note that using the object editor much of what hyperlinks does for you can be "simulated". However I think it needs to be added in a less subtle way. > > One last point, I've tried to use the dBase feature of AVison and > found it lacking in many commands. Especially in the market of search > criteria. The method of suing icons seems very awkward for this > process. I hope that someone will expand the database features and > incorperate the aforementioned hyper-links. What commands would you like to see that are not there? Searches are done via select icons and seems to be friendly. Perhaps the expression editor could be used to qualify 'data' that comes from the database. Would this suit the purpose ? > > I hope that this will help get some people really thinking at > Commodore at how they will approach the multi-media market. Speaking > for myself they are not doing enough to push it's ability and rallying > the support of software developers in this field. Apple does a gret > job of supporting their developers, and gets the co-operation of other > companies to help them in the design of their products. I think > Commodore should consider or work more hard towards creating > relationships with developers and provide many tools for them. I can't speak for Apple's support for their developers. I suspect that would all depend on which developer you ask. However from the point of view from this developer, I have gotten nothing but great support from Commodore in developing AmigaVision applications. What tools would you like to see that does not exist? > > I've said more than enough so let the discussion begin. > Indeed, let the games begin! > Brian > yamanaka@cv.sony.jp <----I think. I've only been here a week and it's > all Japanese to me. > -- > --------------------------------------------------- > Brian YAMANAKA > Sony Corporation, Consumer Video Group > Email: yamanaka@cv.sony.co.jp -mark= Mr. AmigaVision manes@vger.nsu.edu
yamanaka@cv.sony.co.jp (Brian YAMANAKA) (10/12/90)
manes@vger.nsu.edu writes: >> In response to the question "What do you think of AmigaVision," I must >> say that it is an good product with a lot of features. BUT after >> having just attending the International Multi-Media Show in Tokyo, I >> find that the Mac has some truly exciting ideas for multi-media. > ^^^^^ >Perhaps this is a key word. Ideas does not equate to availability >does it? Lots of ideas don't make it into commercial applications. >What product are you refering to? I'm referring to products such as MacroMinds Director and some of Farallon's as yet to be announced products. I've been able to see lots of programs being developed for the Mac that are about to be released. I can't go into detail without violating some non-disclosure agreements. >> First of all I think that it is necessary to represent icons by the >> actual data that they represent. Picture icons should be a small >> version of the image, sound icons may have an image of the sound wave, >> and live images sould also have an icon (perhaps via something like >> A-Live!) All of the Mac products I saw provide these features. Secondly, we >> need hyper-links! This is something that no multi-media product will >> live without (at lest in the presentation market). > >As far as icons representing the images / sounds etc. goes, though that >sounds like a neat display kinda thing it would add to the confusion not >to the usefulness of the display. I do think improvement should be made >so that the contents of the icons are easier to display in a "big picture" >type of format. I don't think that it would add to any confusion or clutter the display. After seeing "PICONS" in MacroMinds director, it seems easier to determine the content of an icon than just seeing the name of the icon as in AmigaVision. >I agree that hyperlinks need to be added. However it is important to note >that using the object editor much of what hyperlinks does for you can be >"simulated". However I think it needs to be added in a less subtle >way. Yes it is possible to simulate hyper-links, but this becomes very difficult when a single reference points to a multitude of references. Changes in links are also difficult to manipulate as the data increases. What I want is a way to make a word HOT in a text file. This word would appear in another color or something in a scrollable text window. The user would then be able to click on the word and have references or actions associated with it performed. >> One last point, I've tried to use the dBase feature of AVison and >> found it lacking in many commands. Especially in the market of search >> criteria. The method of suing icons seems very awkward for this >> process. I hope that someone will expand the database features and >> incorperate the aforementioned hyper-links. >What commands would you like to see that are not there? Searches are >done via select icons and seems to be friendly. Perhaps the expression >editor could be used to qualify 'data' that comes from the database. >Would this suit the purpose ? I think that the dBase feature needs to have a way of creating a more relational type of database. I was trying to create a database of pics in my HD. Each pic had several boolean fields associated with it describing resolution, planes, and content. I could not find an easy way to search the database for complex matches. For example, anything that had a resolution of 320x200 with any no. of planes. All I could do was find exact matches. Perhaps I missed something in the manual, but I couldn't find a way to do this with a single search command. >> I hope that this will help get some people really thinking at >> Commodore at how they will approach the multi-media market. Speaking >> for myself they are not doing enough to push it's ability and rallying >> the support of software developers in this field. Apple does a gret >> job of supporting their developers, and gets the co-operation of other >> companies to help them in the design of their products. I think >> Commodore should consider or work more hard towards creating >> relationships with developers and provide many tools for them. > >I can't speak for Apple's support for their developers. I suspect that >would all depend on which developer you ask. > >However from the point of view from this developer, I have gotten nothing >but great support from Commodore in developing AmigaVision >applications. I think that I wasn't clear on what I meant. From my few dealings with Apple after starting here at Sony, they seem to approach many companies for feedback on their developments, and show their intentions in helping to support new thrird-party hardware in the system software. This makes it a lot easier and encourages the developer to bring a new product to market. I must say that Commodore support has improved dramtically from the early days. >Indeed, let the games begin! >-mark= >Mr. AmigaVision >manes@vger.nsu.edu ======================================================================= Anything stated or implied is my opinion and in no way reflects the views of my employer. -- --------------------------------------------------- Brian YAMANAKA Sony Corporation, Consumer Video Group Email: yamanaka@cv.sony.co.jp
rehrauer@apollo.HP.COM (Steve Rehrauer) (10/12/90)
In article <YAMANAKA.90Oct12093036@fairlady.cv.sony.co.jp> yamanaka@cv.sony.co.jp (Brian YAMANAKA) writes: >manes@vger.nsu.edu writes: >>> In response to the question "What do you think of AmigaVision," I must >>> say that it is an good product with a lot of features. BUT after >>> having just attending the International Multi-Media Show in Tokyo, I >>> find that the Mac has some truly exciting ideas for multi-media. >> ^^^^^ >>Perhaps this is a key word. Ideas does not equate to availability >>does it? Lots of ideas don't make it into commercial applications. >>What product are you refering to? > >I'm referring to products such as MacroMinds Director and some >of Farallon's as yet to be announced products. I've been able to see >lots of programs being developed for the Mac that are about to be >released. I can't go into detail without violating some >non-disclosure agreements. It seems that you're not comparing apples to apples, then, in comparing AmigaVision (an announced, shipping product) to these vapor Mac apps. (I don't mean "vapor" in a disparaging way, just that they aren't yet real.) Are you equally "in" on various Amiga developers' product plans? -- "I feel lightheaded, Sam. I think my | (Steve) rehrauer@apollo.hp.com brain is out of air. But it's kind of | The Apollo Systems Division of a neat feeling..." -- Freelance Police | Hewlett-Packard