ZZFRICK@DHVRRZN1.BITNET (02/15/90)
I don't think that general statement like 'All baddly behaving programs are
by German programmers' are helpful. I agree with you that there were a lot of
bad examples, but I have seen a lot of 'offending' U.S. Programs too.
I don't mind if a program has the U.S keyboard layout hard-coded inside because
my Amiga has an U.S. keyboard, but for most foreign users this is quite
annoying.
Maybe some background information is helpful. There is a lot of persons around
here that started their programming carreer on a C64 - a computer that has
nothing like an operating system. To use sound or graphics, you've got to go
directly to the hardware - in assembler of course, because basic's too slow.
Upgrading to an Amiga, one is the tempted to continue this kind of
programming style - especially considering the amount of of data structures
and library calls you've got to know about. This is not a problem for people
familiar with C programming on large systems, e.g. Unix, but it is a problem
if this philosophy is new to you.
Another problem is the lack of documentation. RKMs, C compiler
manuals and most other books are in English. Unfortunately, there are a lot
of people in Germany who don't speak English well enough to figure out what's
going on in those manuals. How can you learn how to do things right without
proper documentation. Please imagine our position: What would be the quality
of your programs if you had to import all computer related stuff from Japan,
with all documentation, software and so on in Japanese?
Next point: support. All major hard- or software firms supporting the Amiga
are in the USA or Canada. A lot of them is not responsive to overseas
customers. I've sent registration cards to Gold Disk, Infocom and Electronic
Arts - no replies. I sent an request for information to C.A.T.S - no reply.
(Notable exception: Lattice. They snt me the 5.04 update for free. On the other
hand, DM570 ($335) is a lot of money considering a student's budget).
This brings me to the next topic: pricing and availability. Most things things
will reach Europe after a delay from 3 Months to two years and with a rather
hefty price increase due to export handling charges and additional dealer's
charges. Ordering from directly from the USA is quite difficult because you
cannot tranfer money as easily as Email.
Speaking of money: A set of RKM's, Amiga DOS Manuals, Autodocs and a decent
C compiler cost nearly as much as the computer itself. That's apparently
too much for most amateur programmers. They'll rather get an assembler and a
hardware manual because that is cheaper and will allow development even on
a small system. Unfortunately, the most popular SEKA Assembler lacks an
include mechanism, so it is rather obvious why everything goes directly to the
hardware registers. Amateur programmers will eventually finish a game, thus
becoming 'comercial' developers... You see where those badly behaving programs
originate from?
Please do not get me wrong: I do not want to excuse those programmers, I'm
as annoyed by their programs as you are. I don't want to start a flame war
on this topic either, but please remember that most of you are in a rather
fortunate position BEFORE flaming all European (German,...) developers.
Maybe CBM should do something to support development in Europe instead of
trying to sell piles of A500's to children that haven't got the money to buy
software afterwards? How sending competent personal to fairs instead
of marketroids and nice-looking blonde female sales brochure dispensers hired
from a marketing agency?
#define FLAME
Treating customers as incompetent idiots has been CMB's tradition for a long
time, at least over here in Germany. I suspect that's Jack Tramiel's business
style anyway. However, hiding information from people interested in development
will result in non-standard programs and home-brew hardware hacks that will
run only on the developer's machine. CBM Germany could improve things a lot
simply by making public what documentation and support is available and where
it can be obtained. There are a lot of bad programming practices to be killed,
let's start now instead of complaining.
#undef FLAME
I think we'd rather move this topic to private email...
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Harald Fricke <ZZFRICK@DHVRRZN1.BITNET>
Disclaimer: RRZN Hannover and me have no opinions in common. Any opinions
expressed are definitely my own.
Pleeze dizreegart any speallin erorrs, my dictionary is buried under the RKM's