Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!wuarchive!hsdndev!cmcl2!acf5!sabbagh
From: sabbagh@acf5.NYU.EDU (sabbagh)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Why doesn't Apple support their users and developers?
Message-ID: <1409@acf5.NYU.EDU>
Date: 8 Dec 90 16:45:33 GMT
References: <31734.2760E203@stjhmc.fidonet.org>
Reply-To: sabbagh@acf5.UUCP ()
Organization: New York University
Lines: 48

In article <31734.2760E203@stjhmc.fidonet.org> Chris.Gehlker@p12.f56.n114.z1.fidonet.org (Chris Gehlker) writes:
>> And is there anyone out there who believes that the current line of
>> technical documentation is easy-to-use, up-to-date, or even merely
>> ADEQUATE? If so, have you ever read it or tried to use it?
>
>Yeah I think the Apple Docs and Mac DTS are pretty good.  I didn't
>always think so.  Then a company I work for asked my to help some
>guy port some code I'd written for them to Windows.  I got exposed a
>little to the MicroSoft Docs and their Tech support.  I don't bitch
>about Apple any more.

Amen!

I have been following this thread (with one eye open :-)).  I am amazed
at the complaints about Apple developer support.  Have any of you programmed
computers in the real world? (e.g. Unix, DEC, IBM, SGI).  You would 
be astonished at the quality of support.

I am doing my dissertation work on an SGI Personal Iris workstation.  It
runs Unix (yeah, right). There are two accepted meanings of Unix: AT&T and
Berkeley.  This is neither and its both!  Call for support; you'll be lucky
if they get back to you within 3 days; and this is for a systems crash!
The only technical support (i.e., for using their graphics library) is by
reading comp.sys.sgi.

Let's face it: PROGRAMMING THE MAC IS HARD.  No amount of hand-holding by
Apple will make this less true.  This, coupled with Apple's high standards
is the major reason why new systems releases take longer than what the 
market is used to.  Frankly, while most people complain about things not
running when new Systems come out, I am amazed at how well everything holds
together.  Sure, that little cdev you uploaded from Podunk BBS may cause
the system to crash, but Word, Excel, and other important programs still
work.

Hadil G. Sabbagh
E-mail:		sabbagh@cs.nyu.edu
Voice:		(212) 998-3125
Snail:		Courant Institute of Math. Sci.
		251 Mercer St.
		New York,NY 10012

"There's a difference between being hungry and being on a diet."
				- Commentary about John Cougar Mellenkamp.
Disclaimer: This is not a disclaimer.

P.S. I can't wait to see the faces of "IBM PC programmers" when they really
try to write Windows applications!  There's a whole new world waiting for
Mac programmers!