Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!samsung!sdd.hp.com!decwrl!apple!portal!cup.portal.com!Bob_BobR_Retelle
From: Bob_BobR_Retelle@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: help!
Message-ID: <32059@cup.portal.com>
Date: 25 Jul 90 07:50:08 GMT
References: <1990Jul21.233546.16105@hayes.fai.alaska.edu>
  <23783@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
  <1990Jul23.012040.925@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 27

Documentation such as "Hitchhikers Guide to the BIOS", S.A.L.A.D. and
all the other info mentioned is available...  IF...  you join the
"fraternity" of Atari developers...
 
As mentioned here on the net by Atari representatives, Atari Corp doesn't
consider most of us to be worth their time or trouble.. (comeon Greg, you
read it, I read it, we all read it... don't bother protesting)
 
Only if you demonstrate your "credibility" by forking out the initiation
dues and by meeting the "standards" for an Atari Developer, can you obtain
entre into the "inner circle" and learn all that neat inside stuff about
Atari computers.. (I dunno.. .is there a "secret handshake" too..?)
 
If you don't meet the standards, or can't afford the $250 intitiation fee,
you can dig through the Abacus books (with all their typos and errors) and
pore over back-issues of ST magazines, or try to disassemble the TOS ROMs
yourself... (something that is highly discouraged by the Atari reps..
you might learn something they want to sell you...)
 
 
Seems funny... a company whose market is in the toilet like Atari's is
should, by most rational outlooks, try to encourage as many enthusiastic
programmers as possible to work with their systems... to help drag them
back into the real world...  but no one seems to have ever accused Atari
Corp of being rational...
 
BobR