Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!maytag!water!ljdickey
From: ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu (L.J.Dickey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Pick your software first (Was: 386's, TT's, a machine I want)
Keywords: TT,386,Atari
Message-ID: <2731@water.waterloo.edu>
Date: 29 Oct 89 00:21:19 GMT
References: <211@fjcp60.GOV> <2729@water.waterloo.edu>
Reply-To: ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu (L.J.Dickey)
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 27

In a rather lengthy and meandering article, (what was his point anyway?),
<211@fjcp60.GOV> winston@fjcnet.GOV (Winston M. Llamas) writes:

> ...   In many ways,
> I got what I paid for - a lack of programs that I'd really like to use.

This rings a bell for me.  I remember some advice that I got from
John Bear, in his delightful book "Computer Wimp", he lists "166
things I wish I had known before I bought my first computer".

Point number 25 says to choose the software before you buy the hardware.

I think he is absolutely right, and his advice helped me to buy the
Atari I now have.  I got what I wanted, APL.68000, and am still happy
with it; it is the highest level programming language I know for
any micro, and is almost the fastest implementation of any APL for
any micro.  Of course, I have been delighted to see certain other
good things come along...  for instance, UNITERM, Gulam, and Maple,
but the point is still the same:

Pick your software first, then but a machine that runs it.

-- 
    L. J. Dickey, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Waterloo.
	ljdickey@water.UWaterloo.ca	ljdickey@water.BITNET
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