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From: JOHNBARNES@ENH.NIST.GOV
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: "kneecapping" and TOS piracy
Message-ID: <8911280802.AA18983@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 27 Nov 89 17:22:00 GMT
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 77

Subject: "Kneecapping" by developers and TOS piracy

1. Kneecapping.

The conversation over a shareware alternative to the Spectre GCR seems
to point up a tendency among some strains of Atari developers to pipe
up and say "I can do what ..... only I can do it better".  The result
is that the software consumer is faced with a plethora of products and
no information on which to make a valid judgement as to which is
better.

In short, it often seems that developers are trying to shoot one
another in the kneecaps while the users shakes his head and wanders
off, disgusted.  This appraoch may also reflect a lack of creativity
in some corners of the hacker world.

It would be far better if users and developers could work together 
 to iron out bugs and to improve existing products.  If developers could
find it in their hearts to make commitments to improve their products
and if users would take a much more disciplined approach to
documenting problems we might see growth rather than stagnation in the
Atari software base.

For those who wonder what I mean, let me suggest the following as
projects worthy of development:

Improvement or an alternative to the DMC LaserBrain to make it a truly
viable Epson emulator for the SLM804.  Most Epson users do not want to
fret about fonts and the like.  Just make it put the same amount of
data on a page as the Epson does and make it understand all of the
Epson escape sequences.  Most Atari applications that output to the
printer without fancy drivers (and there a lot of them) couch their
ouptut in Epson terms.

Ditto for an HP LaserJet emulator.  Make several, each corresponding
to the various plug-in font cartridges.  Just make it work like and
HP.

How about an HPGL emulator for the SLM804?  This would let us make
proofs of drafting program output without having to have a pen
plotter.

How about a CLI that looks like VAX/VMS DCL?  U**X missionaires might
be appalled, but some folks might enjoy speaking plainly to their
machines.

How about devlopers' toolkit like Prototyper for the Mac?  Let's make
it so that anyone who can understand their problem can write a graphic
interface for the program to solve it.

How about a nice presentation graphics program like Cricket Graph or
Igor from the Mac World? Many of us need to make publication quality
graphs and charts.  Degas is not good enough.

I would like to hear about some genuine new products rather than
vacuum ware (vaporware without any substance at all).

2. TOS 1.4 Piracy

There is a persistent rumor arounmd here that Atari Germany basically
countenanced the widespread priracy of TOS 1.4 ROMs.  This rumor came
to me from a well placed source within Atari Corp.  An equally
well-placed Atarian (since retired), who was sitting at the same
table, expressed the opinion that this was actually a good idea,
because it would result in this greatly improved technology being
disseminated much more rapidly.

Why Not, I ask?  If people want to burn their own ROMS, why not let
them?  Atari should even provide diagnostic files that can be run to
test the validity of user-generated ROMS.  That way every serious
user will soon be on the same footing and developers will no longer
ve to fret about maintaining compatability with old releases.


Disclaimer:  The opinions expressed above are personal opinions held
by the author of this piece and in no way reflect positions taken by
his employer.