Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!pyrdc!lighthouse!rock
From: rock@lighthouse.com (Roger Rock Rosner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Registered developer's...Jazz improv software
Message-ID: <1989Dec6.050716.9637@lighthouse.com>
Date: 6 Dec 89 05:07:16 GMT
References: <972@abvax.UUCP>
Organization: Lighthouse Design, Ltd.
Lines: 54
In-reply-to: jaz@abvax.UUCP's message of 4 Dec 89 16:41:23 GMT


In article <972@abvax.UUCP> jaz@abvax.UUCP (Jack A. Zucker) writes:

>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.

I have Sonata on my NeXT right now (and yes, it's beta).  I called
Adobe today.  The rep said their first type library for the NeXT will
probably be released this month.  The rep also added, "Illustrator
will take a while longer.  Don't look for it first quarter."

>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.

Most unfair.  Call us and we'll only give you a vague notion of our
release date.  And I know damn well we're working like crazy on the
NeXT.  This is how people avoid creating vaporware.  (Vaporware, by
any reasonable definition, is when the company says (or implies) the
product is shipping when it isn't yet done.)

>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 have to agree with Jack here.  This policy stinks.  If "naive" users
can get the machine without attending a course, why can't we?
Programming it is *easier* than programming other machines, remember?

>Apparently more SPARCS are sold every months then have ever sold of
>the NeXT machine.

Does it occur to you that Suns have been on the market for years?
That they're the biggest workstation manufacturer in the world?  Do
you have a point?  Or is this another of those "they can't succeed
because they're new" arguments?  Have we reached the end of
technological development?  (Why do I keep feeling like this is 1984
again?  "The Mac can't succeed.  There are more PC's sold in a month
than Macs exist.")

>The price I paid for the SPARC was just a little more
>than the educational price for the NeXT machine. 

And what did you get?  A fast machine that has little productivity
software, no dsp, no d/a of note, tiny drives, and a really nasty user
interface.  Great deal.

Roger Rosner

The above is a personal opinion in no way endorsed by my employers.