Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!cwjcc!abvax!jaz
From: jaz@abvax.UUCP (Jack A. Zucker)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Registered developer's...Jazz improv software
Keywords: NeXT
Message-ID: <972@abvax.UUCP>
Date: 4 Dec 89 16:41:23 GMT
Organization: Allen-Bradley Company, Inc; Industrial Computer Division, Highland Heights, OH
Lines: 64


I just wanted to relate my experience trying to become a registered
developer for NeXT...

I wrote them proposing to write a jazz improvisation program
which would interactively take the student through chord
theory, chord scale relationships, altered chords, synthetic
scales, poly-rythms, etc. It would display notated examples
which the user would be able to listen to by clicking on the
appropriate icon. I saw the NeXT machine as the perfect
machine to do this on since it has the built in DSP which
I would use for synthesis or sampling. I planned to use some
third party software and hardware to assist me. Digital ears,
a digital recording device would be used for digitizing, and
I planned to use Finale by Coda Music Software, to actually
notate the music, which I would save in EPS format.

I was disturbed to find out upon calling Coda, that there was
only a single person doing the port, and that the software
may not be finished for at least 12 months. At that point,
I figured I'd call Adobe and buy their Sonata font, which
would save me the trouble of designing my own musical noteheads,
flags, etc. Well Adobe told me that they were not sure if they
would be releasing any product for the NeXT. This amazed me,
of course since we all know by now that the NeXT uses Display
Postscript. It turns out that much of the hardware and software
in the NeXT catalog is vaporware at this point. Most of the
companies I called wouldn't even give me a ball park figure of
when their software would be ported to the NeXT. This trend
sounds amazingly like the OS/2 software catalog, which everyone
nominated for best fictional work of the year.

Anyway, my proposal was accepted by NeXT, and they indicated that I
would be able to buy the hardware at developer's prices as soon
as I took the $750.00 developer's course. Unfortunately, the
next course was Jan. 30th, which was over 2 months away. I didn't
want to wait that long to get started, so I offered to pay for
the course "up front". NeXT indicated that their policy was
firm, and that they couldn't make any exceptions. In addition,
I explained that I had gotten a 1% discount on the interest rate
of the loan that I had financed in order to being my development,
and the bank would not give me the money until I had received
confirmation of the order from NeXT. NeXT offered to take the
money now, and send me the machine in 60-70 days but that hardly
seemed acceptable. Well, I wanted to start now !!! What developer
wants to tread water for 2 months ? I tried calling different people
at NeXT to plead my case, but I never got any calls returned. It
seems this the small start up company, which likes to portray the
"mischievous bad boy, no tie look", has some polices that are akin
to IBM, DEC, and yes, even SUN. They told me that I was "welcome"
to buy the system at Businessland, and start development !

Oh, well. I "settled" for a 12.5 mips SPARCstation 1. 
The Sun does not have a DSP of course, but with all the
OEMS liscensing the SPARC chip and SunOS, it's only a matter of time
before we start seeing cheap SPARC hardware and software. Apparently
more SPARCS are sold every months then have ever sold of the NeXT
machine. The Sun does have a CODEC 8k digital voice chip (just like
the NeXT) so it can be used for voice mail. Anyway, at least I got
a machine. The price I paid for the SPARC was just a little more
than the educational price for the NeXT machine. The SPARC will come
down in price too, when the SPARCstation 2 machines come out.
-Jaz
jaz@calvin.icd.ab.com