Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!udel!mmdf
From: GWO110%URIACC.BITNET@brownvm.brown.edu (F. Michael Theilig)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Difficulty in programming
Message-ID: <21622@snow-white.udel.EDU>
Date: 10 Jun 90 18:42:27 GMT
Sender: mmdf@udel.EDU
Lines: 48

On 10 Jun 90 09:47:10 GMT you said:
>
>You are considering programming in the small, which is the wrong place to
>be looking for the benefits of programming the Amiga.
>
>Look instead at programming in the large.  Many companies look at the large
>installed base of IBM-PC's and their clones, and say "$$$!!! That's the
>place to write programs for sale!".  Then they get into the beta testing
>stage of a product and find:
>
>more than 20 incompatible printer formats, requiring a separate driver for
>each;
>
>half a dozen incompatible display technologies, requiring either separate
>drivers or complex code;
>
>at least two incompatible mouse technologies, requiring separate drivers;
>
>several incompatible raster image export and import formats, ditto;
>
>two or more incompatible memory expansion technologies, each with several
>incompatible software access technologies, ditto;
>
>imperfect or incompatible BIOS emulations, requiring separate product releases;
>
>a buggy and poorly maintained operating system, causing headaches all through
>the development cycle;
>
>and the list goes on.
>
     While I sorda agreed when I read the first few posts about smaller
 systems being easier to program (I migraded up from the C64), doing anything
 complex on a smaller system is a serious pain.  On the C64 you had two
 useable language options:  BASIC and ML.  BASIC was slow and very limited,
 and writing major code (I did a BBS which was *HUGE*!) was almost impossible.
 The assemblers I used (better ones were available) were slow, buggy, and a
 pain to use.

     The Amiga is complicated almost to a fault (definate learning curve),
 and the C64 was simplistic to a fault.  Once I get fully up and running
 with Amiga programming, I know I'll never want to leave it.

 ----
      F. Michael Theilig  -  The University of Rhode Island at Little Rest
                            GWO110 at URIACC.Bitnet
                            GKZ117 at URIACC.Bitnet

"Gooooood coffee."