Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ames!zodiac!jtn
From: jtn@zodiac.ADS.COM (John Nelson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Registered developer's...Jazz improv software
Keywords: NeXT
Message-ID: <9970@zodiac.ADS.COM>
Date: 7 Dec 89 17:58:45 GMT
References: <972@abvax.UUCP>
Sender: news@zodiac.ADS.COM
Reply-To: jtn@ads.com (John Nelson)
Organization: Advanced Decision Systems, Mt. View, CA (415) 960-7300
Lines: 45

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

This amazes me too.  Adobe is developing and licencing products for
the Mac (Apple has decided to develope their own scalable fonts
instead of using Adobe Postscript fonts) but not for NeXT (which uses
a licenced display Postscript kernel)???

I also called Coda software to find out when Finale' would be released
for the NeXT.  The person I talked to said they hadn't even begun
development but they were taking names to see how much interest there
was.  Why are we getting two entirely different answers?

I called MOTU to see when performer would be available for neXT and at
least MOTU *is* developing something.  They have no idea however when
performer will be available which tells me that they really AREN'T
committed to developing anything.  You don't begin a deveopment effort
without some idea of when you expect to complete development.

I guess these companies would rather make money selling their existing
ports than enter into expensive development efforts to port their
software to other machines.

I STRONGLY suggest that NeXT look into these problems.  I realize that
the machine is new and thus software is scarce, but the almost
schitzophrenic response of software developrs doesn't bode well.  NeXT
should send out a newsletter at the very least, to inform it's
customers and dispell these rumors.




John T. Nelson			UUCP: sun!sundc!potomac!jtn
Advanced Decision Systems	Internet:  jtn@potomac.ads.com
1500 Wilson Blvd #512; Arlington, VA 22209-2401		(703) 243-1611