dorner@pequod.cso.uiuc.edu (Steve Dorner) (05/05/89)
In article <8956@polya.Stanford.EDU> aozer@NeXT.com (Ali Ozer) writes: >... >Take a look at the Draw & Icon programs in /NextDeveloper/Demos in 0.9: They >... >BTW, 0.9 includes TeX and Metafont. Fonts are generated on the fly as >... 0.9 sounds really nice. Too bad we don't have it. The last lie I was told said it would ("Positively, I got off the phone two minutes ago and they said it was shipping") be HERE April 28th. And before that, it was "We're shipping it April 10th, for sure." And before that, it was "By the end of March." And before that, it was "Middle to late March." My calendar says it's May; I don't know about anyone else's. What I find even more annoying is I don't hear a word about dates slipping until they come up with the next phantom ship date. They already have an electronic newsletter that goes to campus support personnel; I fail to see why they can't use that to 'fess up when they aren't shipping (again). I've heard it said on occasion, "But we don't want to ship a bad product, like <insert-your-favorite-company-here>." That's all well and good; but then cut out the "It's going to be here for sure" garbage. There are some development projects I began putting off in early March because I thought .9 was just around the corner. If I'd known then that I was going to wait (at least) TWO MORE MONTHS, I would have struggled on doing dev- elopment under 0.8. And raise your electronic hands if you believe you'll see 1.0 in June, as promised. Welcome to the real world, I guess. [I would be more than happy to have .9 arrive moments after I post this, so I would look stupid. I fear it isn't going to be so.] -- Steve Dorner, U of Illinois Computing Services Office Internet: dorner@garcon.cso.uiuc.edu UUCP: {convex,uunet}!uiucuxc!dorner IfUMust: (217) 244-1765
usenet@cps3xx.UUCP (Usenet file owner) (05/06/89)
NeXT local reps were here on campus yesterday for a routine talk/demo. They had just (that very day) received 0.9 and said that it had started shipping on Wednesday, 3 May 1989. Just yesterday I came across a copy of the document _0.9/1.0 Release Description_, dated March 1989. I will quote selectively from this 29-page document, which is lying open on my desk right now: Release 0.9: Summary of Planned Changes: - optical disks are automatically mounted and dismounted for you. - the first release of NetInfo, a utility for configuring networks, is included. - ability to copy files between optical disks. - blank optical disks are automatically initialized. - a generalized SCSI device driver makes it easier to support various SCSI devices. - Interface Builder is greatly changed in its appearance and uses a new file format. - custom objects can now be linked to Interface Builder for testing. - a terminal-based version of Franz Allegro CL common Lisp is included. - the Objective-C compiler compiler faster. - WriteNow and Digital Librarian have numerous changes and enhancements. - a beta version of Mathematica has been included. - Terminal supports fuller VT100 emulation, and the Terminal window can be resized. - the Printer application has a new user interface; it now supports printing across networks and printing on non-NeXT printers. - Motorola 56001 DSP assembler included. - support for user-developed DSP programs. [end of quote. I have excerpted those items I thought most interesting; certainly there's a lot I have omitted] At the demo, my colleagues and I noted (from our very limited experience with NeXT computers) that the Interface Builder did seem to be much improved. I was still disappointed with the speed of the machine--as far as I could tell without actually being at the keyboard. We can only hope that this will improve with 1.0, which apparently is going to be primarily a bug fix/performance enhancement release. Mark Riordan riordanmr@clvax1.cl.msu.edu Michigan State University