rtb@ihuxi.UUCP (11/09/83)
Someone on the net said that the 1.5 million spent by ATARI is
a clear indictment of the hardware, the documentation, and the
people that use it. I'm sorry but I can't let such an ignorant
remark go by. Is the Service Garage of every Car dealer an indictment
of the integrity of the cars and the people who drive them?
Atari has published schematics,software refernce manuals,
OS listings,hardware reference manuals among other documentation on how to use
their computers. With all this documentation isn't it reasonable
to assume that some questions will still come up on how to use the
computer? Can you get a listing of the source code for the Commadore OS?
Can you get schematics of the circuit board? The software reference
manuals for the ATARI show how to use every major feature of the
built in grahics capabilities. Does the Commadore 64 programmers
reference manual show techniques for page flipping, modified display
lists,fine and course scrolling? Is there another book published
on the commadore that covers more ground than the Commadore 64
reference manual? I called the ATARI help line with some questions
about the interface module and they sent me two new updated manuals
free of charge even though I bought the module 2 years ago.
A friend of mine bought a c64 mail order and none of the dealers
who fix c64s around here will fix c64s that they didn't sell. ATARI
has 1700 nation wide service centers to avoid that kind of situation.
I have been using my Atari 800 and disk drive for 3 years now
trouble free, but its nice to know that when (if) they break
I won't have to send them to California to get them fixed.
R. T. Bradstrum
Western Electric @ IH