[comp.sys.amiga] Why the Atari ST "flame" was posted up...

sqrkl@csvax.liv.ac.uk (03/07/88)

> 	I didn't ask for it.  You are certainly entitled to your
> 	opinions, but WHY would you post this to comp.sys.atari.st?
> 	Are you trying to stir up some excitement, or what?
> 	If you guys want to rant and rave about stupid things like this,
> 	why not keep it to yourself?  Mail is good for that, you know.  

Normally, I would have kept it to myself (and MAILed directly to the
person involved), but I was angry with the person who'd "flamed" me just
because I put a personal opinion at the end of one of my postings.
I don't like being accused of posting "childish bulls**t" and being told
to take a course in logic (???), so I thought other people should see
some extracts from his MAIL to me, along with some 'arguments' he requested
I supply...
  Anyway, if you want to see a GOOD machine, forget the Amiga, Macintosh and
Atari ST - buy an Acorn Archimedes...I've been programming in ARM (RISC) code
for a couple of months now and it is BEAUTIFUL (so's the Archimedes - puts
all other machines below a MicroVAX 3500 to shame).

Richard K. Lloyd,          ***************************************************
Computer Science Dept.,    * JANET : SQRKL@UK.AC.LIV.CSVAX                   *
Liverpool University,      * UUCP  : {backbone}!mcvax!ukc!mupsy!liv-cs!SQRKL *
Merseyside, England,       * ARPA  : SQRKL%csvax.liv.ac.uk@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk  *
Great (?) Britain.         ***************************************************

"I have VERY strong opinions which are nothing whatsoever to do with the
University of Liverpool, so blame ME if I bitch about useless IBM PC clones,
even more redundant IBM mainframes and the terrible Atari ST..."

exodus@uop.edu (G.Onufer) (03/10/88)

In article <478@csvax.liv.ac.uk>, sqrkl@csvax.liv.ac.uk writes:
> > 	I didn't ask for it.  You are certainly entitled to your
> > 	opinions, but WHY would you post this to comp.sys.atari.st?
>   Anyway, if you want to see a GOOD machine, forget the Amiga, Macintosh and
> Atari ST - buy an Acorn Archimedes...I've been programming in ARM (RISC) code
> for a couple of months now and it is BEAUTIFUL (so's the Archimedes - puts
> all other machines below a MicroVAX 3500 to shame).


I wouldn't worry too much about this guy.  He mailed me after I flamed him...
in fact, he is still mailing me.  His opions are semi-unusual:

-Anything that resembles a C-Shell is terrible
-If it isn't VMS DCL, it isn't usable
-VMS is the most user-friendly system available (or close to it)
-GnuEmacs isn't a decent editor
-The Acorn is the world's best computer--   [ME: Where is it?]
-Unix commands are too cryptic to be usable
-BASIC (albeit a modern semi-structured BASIC) is the programming language
 of choice				    [ME:  Why not use PASCAL?]
-C is a terrible language, see above
-There are no decent compilers for the ST   [Ever see MWC 2.0 or above?]
-Only his opinions mean anything

See?  No problems here.  Obviously not a hacker.

[These opions have been re-worded but contain the same thoughts he expressed
to me.  My comments are in brackets containing the word "ME"]

He does claim an Archimedes obtains 4 MIPS for somewhere around 800 pounds
sterling... is that around 1600 dollars?  I forgot the exchange rate!!


G.Onufer

ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) (03/11/88)

In article <1244@uop.edu> exodus@uop.edu (G.Onufer) writes:
>In article <478@csvax.liv.ac.uk>, sqrkl@csvax.liv.ac.uk writes:
>> > 	I didn't ask for it.  You are certainly entitled to your
>> > 	opinions, but WHY would you post this to comp.sys.atari.st?
>>   Anyway, if you want to see a GOOD machine, forget the Amiga, Macintosh and
>> Atari ST - buy an Acorn Archimedes...I've been programming in ARM (RISC) code
>> for a couple of months now and it is BEAUTIFUL (so's the Archimedes - puts
>> all other machines below a MicroVAX 3500 to shame).
>
>I wouldn't worry too much about this guy.  He mailed me after I flamed him...
>in fact, he is still mailing me.  His opions are semi-unusual:
>
>[ Handwave, Handwave... ]
>-The Acorn is the world's best computer--   [ME: Where is it?]
>
>He does claim an Archimedes obtains 4 MIPS for somewhere around 800 pounds
>sterling... is that around 1600 dollars?  I forgot the exchange rate!!
>
	He is right about the Acorn system; the ARM chip kicks major a**.

	Don't believe it?  Dave Needle (ex C-A hardware tech, and a damn
good one, too) created an Acorn RISC-based prototype system while he worked
for another well-known company after he left C-A.  It was an 8MHz system,
and had it emulating their low-end system's software, and running their
graphics kernel flawlessly.  The ARM system he designed outperformed
every system this company made, including the MAC-II.  It was also cheap
(according to Dave, you can get the ARM chip for $10, quantity one).

	Said company refused to manufacture it, claiming that it would never
work.  Never mind that Dave and others in his crew had a fully functional
prototype, running all the software that the software division said would
never work.

	Dave got fed up because of this, and now works for Epyx, designing
who-knows-what.

	If the Archimedes ever makes it to the States, I'm gonna take a good
look at it.  If Dave's any expert (and he is), it should be one very
impressive system.

DISCLAIMER: Stories relating to this mythical vaporsystem were related to me
by Dave Needle.  I make no claims as to their accuracy.  He may have been
making it all up (not unlikely; he claims to be from Jupiter, and does so
with a straight face).

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