trb@stag.UUCP ( Todd Burkey ) (04/23/87)
In article <620@elmgate.UUCP> jdg@aurora.UUCP (Jeff Gortatowsky) writes: >instead (nobody ever writes me 8^) ). I've owned an Amiga and an ST >almost since the day they were available. Me too. Although the amiga hasn't even been turned on in over 3 months except to check out certain utilities and pictures... >Atari User's Group . I know my ST's and I *Believe* I know my >Amiga's. The PD software for the ST is by and large *ABSOLUTE JUNK*. >This does not reflect poorly on ST programmers. I disagree. The local club has around 140+ disks of PD STuff of which a very good percentage is quality utilities and applications. There is a lot of junk out there, and I do think that the junk is simply because the ST has a lot of compilable languages available and everyone seems to be writing stuff lately (and I think that is great). Give the Amiga a good Pascal compiler, and a faster (and cheaper) C compiler, and maybe even something quick and dirty like GFA Basic and you will see the same thing on the Amiga. BTW, I don't consider demos when I say PD, since that tends to confuse things (i.e. the juggler and bouncing balls are neat, but after you have used them to show your spouse why you keep investing in computers does anyone ever run them again?) >excellence. The technical support for the Amiga is REAL, not virtual >like Atari's. We talk with Carolyn and George and Andy. ST people get >to talk to 'marketing'. Sadly, I agree. Atari may not realize it, but if the local clubs are like any other clubs, then what gets said on USENET is usually fed directly to the users for discussion at the local meetings...I know this happens at 3 of the local ST meetings...and the biggest complaint is the same...where is the support? (and lately, where is the product?) Atari is banking, apparently, on the clubs, us guru's, and 'third parties' (to quote an over-used atari keyword) to not only advertize the ST (I must have had my hand in around 75 ST purchases last year), document how to program the ST, and develop software for the ST, but also to provide technical support. I personally have no problem with this, but I wonder how Atari expects to get into the business world with their current attitudes. I appreciate the work Neil and everyone has done, but it doesn't appear to be enough and of sufficient substance. Back to the Amiga vs ST controversy...I really think it is more dependent upon which computer you have the most peripherals on and which you have used the most. They both have their gotcha's that at one time or another can cause lost data (i.e. my Amiga hangs at the most frustrating of times ... like when I am editing a very large file, etc.) The amiga has it's hold and modify workaround for getting lots of res for pictures, but try painting an original picture sometime with HAM...it is frustrating enough to make you buy a PC and a number 9 card. Lots of different uses for each computer and fanatics on both sides of the fence. For me, 1 meg of memory, 30 megs of disk space, a good C compiler environment (MWC 2.0), a good PASCAL compiler (OSS), a good color printer (Canon Ink jet), and a good color monitor (the old style) is enough to keep me happy. -Todd Burkey ..ihnp4!meccts!zeke!stag!trb p.s. I am currently sitting out on my deck typing this in on my MAC using Unix Windows...finally, i found a use for this thing! and uw is fantastic, as well.