ereidell@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Evan A. Reidell) (05/03/90)
I was reading the April 1990 issue of Computer Graphics World, a
magazine devoted mainly to graphics workstations, when I ran
across an article in the Letters section (reprinted below),
written by Thomas Dawson of San Diego, CA. What pleased me was
that not only did CGW print the letter, they made it the first
letter in the section and headlined it with a big, 24pt
"MULTIMEDIA ON THE AMIGA".
I enjoy seeing Amy get this kind of good publicity. And the more
Amiga users who politely point out that the Amiga is THE BEST
personal/multimedia computer around (or at least the best for
people who don't have thousands of expense-account dollars to
throw away), the more people out there who think, "Gee, computers,
should I go IBM or Macintosh?" will realize that Commodore offers
a very impressive alternative at an unbeatable price.
I'm sure we all want to see Commodore do well. And I for one am
going to write a letter to Byte congratulating them on their
decision to feature the Amiga so prominently in their magazine.
Perhaps some positive feedback will generate more Amiga Awareness.
I'm also going to write a letter to the Boston Computer Society's
COMPUTER CURRENTS, gently reprimanding them for their article,
"Multimedia in the '90s... Macintosh Leads the Way" which is
pretty much a giant Macintosh advertisement disguised as an
article and which totally ignores the Amiga. Although COMPUTER
CURRENTS is biased garbage, it's biased garbage that lots of
people in Boston read. And they might believe it if we don't do
something. (By the way, their address is Boston Computer
Currents, 4 Chrysler Road, Natick MA 01760. Be tactful but firm.)
Of course, all of this is IMHO. I just love my computer. Is that
so wrong? And remember, "We're all in this together." [Brazil]
- Evan A. Reidell (ereidell@media-lab.media.mit.edu)
Text of the letter to Computer Graphics World follows.
MULTIMEDIA ON THE AMIGA
(Computer Graphics World April 1990, Page 11)
In regard to the article on multimedia, "Playing Author" (February), I
was shocked at the lack of professionalism displayed by the authors.
Before making pronouncements on the capabilities of a piece of
equipment, one must be familiar with that equipment. These authors
are obviously unfamiliar with the Amiga.
They claim that a Hypercard product is not possible on the Amiga
when one, Ultracard, has, in fact, been available for some time.
This product matches the capabilities of Hypercard so well that
{\it The Complete Hypercard Book, Second Edition}, by Danny
Goodman, is recommended as a reference guide.
They also claim that non-linear authoring tools are unavailable
for the Amiga when, in fact, there are at least two more besides
the Ultracard product: The Director by Right Answers Group and
Viva! by Michtron. These products provide easy
information-linking and presentation-customizing tools.
The authors also fail to present an obvious advantage the Amiga
has over the Macintosh for multimedia because of its multitasking
operating system. The heart of multimedia is just what the name
implies: the display of many forms of media simultaneously. An
example would be showing an on-screen animation overlaid on a
series of images read in from a laser disk and playing background
music while taking user input through a touch screen. A
multitasking operating system makes doing this sort of thing easy.
In fact, the programs doing the various facets of the presentation
can even be from different vendors, thanks to a standard
interfacing protocol called ARexx.
I was also appalled at the obvious bias the authors display
against the Amiga. The authors speak of upcoming Mac products as
"promising news" and upcoming Amiga products as "purported."
Also, the name of an upcoming product was given when announcing
things for the Mac but was never mentioned for the Amiga.
With the large amount of software available (at this time, more
professional video production software is available for the Amiga
than the Mac), its multitasking operating system, on-board custom
coprocessors for sound and video, and a standard protocol for
communications between vendor products, the Amiga is a major
player in the multimedia market.
Thomas Dawson
San Diego, CA
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evan says thanks for reading this far