Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!overload!dillon From: dillon@overload.Berkeley.CA.US (Matthew Dillon) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech Subject: Re: What's Wrong with ARP!!!! Message-ID: Date: 2 Dec 90 02:40:30 GMT References: <2271@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca> <321.27552470@vger.nsu.edu> Lines: 45 My opinion is simple. ARP is a boon to the people who use and like it. On the other hand, ARP has caused more hair pulling in the history of the Amiga... Its design goals are inherently destabilizing to the entire Amiga community: (1) ARP decided to name its replacement commands the same as the C-A commands in C: (90% of hairpulling due to this) (2) ARP did not make the commands completely compatible with the original C: commands, causing otherwise perfectly valid script files to fail on arp-installed systems. (3) Many ARP developers and programmer-users wrote programs that depended on ARP extensions, calling C: programs or Execute() with the assumption that they were the ARP executables or certain patches were installed. Total havoc is reeked on the non-arp users that make up the majority of amiga owners. Worse, some programs distributed some of the 'replacement' executables just so they would work, requiring non-ARP users to partially install ARP on their systems to use the programs. (4) ARP never caught up with Commodore enhancements (1.3.2 or 2.0), and never will. The compatibility problem gets worse because of this. As far as I am concerned, the only really great thing about ARP is ARP.LIBRARY .... not because it's a good library (which it is pretty much), but because it doesn't screw around with existing system commands or libraries. You can install it without turning your system into a garbage pile. -Matt -- Matthew Dillon dillon@Overload.Berkeley.CA.US 891 Regal Rd. uunet.uu.net!overload!dillon Berkeley, Ca. 94708 USA