Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!usc!snorkelwacker!apple!uokmax!d.cs.okstate.edu!norman
From: norman@d.cs.okstate.edu (Norman Graham)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Upgrade Policies in general (MicroSoft particularly)
Message-ID: <1990Jul18.023645.20946@d.cs.okstate.edu>
Date: 18 Jul 90 02:36:45 GMT
References: <29753.26a33d70@vaxb.acs.unt.edu>
Organization: Oklahoma State University
Lines: 42

From article <29753.26a33d70@vaxb.acs.unt.edu>, by ac08@vaxb.acs.unt.edu ((C. Irby)):
> In article <90198.134333SAS102@psuvm.psu.edu>, SAS102@psuvm.psu.edu (Steven A. Schrader) writes:
>> In article <989@duteca.UUCP>, hansm@duteca8.tudelft.nl (Hans Mulder) says:
>>>
>>> [Hans complains that Excel 1.0 stopped working when he upgraded
>>> to System 6.0.4. He wants to know if he should blame Microsoft or 
>>> Apple.]

>> [Stephen argues that it's Apple's fault because they somehow changed
>> the Mac's archetecture in order to support the IIci and the portable.]

> You mean you don't know about Microsoft's famous "we'll write it any way
> we damn please" attitude?  Every time Apple comes out with a new version
> of the System, some Microsoft product breaks because they can't seem to
> remember how to follow the guidelines... 

And don't forget that Apple bent over backwards trying to keep Microsoft's
programs working. As I recall, early versions of MultiFinder had special
'Microsoft aware' sections of code. One of the things this code did was
to attempt to load Excel into the first megabyte of memory: It seems that
Excel made some assumptions that prevented it from running in high memory.

IMHO, Apple should have just let Microsoft's products break, thus unleashing
the rath of users upon Microsoft. If this had been done, perhaps Microsoft
would have a less cavalier attitude about the programming guidelines today.
Honestly, most programs have no trouble at all surviving system software
upgrades. I just can't understand why Microsoft should have such a poor
track record on this point.

Please forgive me if the above sounds a bit flammy. I guess I've just run
into too many bugs in Word (3.0 to 4.0) and it's left a bad taste in my
mouth. I've managed to reduce my stress level somewhat by avoiding 
Microsoft products whenever possible. Now I launch Word only when I need
that one little feature that my normal word processor doesn't have--I'm 
happy to say that is a rare event.

--Norm
-- 
Norman Graham                            Oklahoma State University
  Internet:  norman@a.cs.okstate.edu     Computing and Information Sciences
  BangPath:                              219 Mathematical Sciences Building
     {cbosgd,rutgers}!okstate!norman     Stillwater, OK  USA  74078-0599