Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!ubc-cs!alberta!edson!news From: jpenne@ee.ualberta.ca (Jerry Penner) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: GS Sound (was:Re: Stellar 7 re-release) Message-ID: <1990Dec19.042811.16886@ee.ualberta.ca> Date: 19 Dec 90 04:28:11 GMT References: <10128@darkstar.ucsc.edu> <1990Dec18.195755.2385@ee.rochester.edu> Sender: news@ee.ualberta.ca Organization: University of Alberta Electrical Engineering Lines: 52 In article <1990Dec18.195755.2385@ee.rochester.edu> seah@ee.rochester.edu (David Seah) writes: >In article <10128@darkstar.ucsc.edu> unknown@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (The Unknown User) writes: >>In article NOWAKO09@SNYBUFVA.BITNET (APPLE //GS - THE POWER TO BE YOUR BEST) writes: >>} The big BIG diffeculty is in programming the damn 5505 chip! I thought >>}when I bought my GS that I could get great stuff out of Basic. Donkey chips! >> >> I think that is a VERY VERY VERY unfair complaint saying you want >>to do things from BASIC! >>[Mass speculation follows] > >I believe, though, that the original poster has a valid wish. Not everybody >is interested in sinking 800 dollars in development tools and investing >the time to learn them. One really cool thing about the old Apple II >line was that you could turn it on and program simple HIRES graphics in >Applesoft. Sure, you're not going to write today's hot arcade game in >Applesoft, but not everyone wants that. It's sort of sad that the IIGS >moved away from that kind of readily accessible power. Computer users of the late '80s and now the '90s do NOT want to write their own programs. Sure, a few of us (who lived and computed back in the early '80s) do want to do this even to this day. However, making a machine that's hackable, or easy to access things without lots of money, is sure to be a lose situation for the manufacturer. >If the IIGS had been bundled with a simple animation and sound program >with a little enhanced BASIC thrown in for control, more teachers and >computer neophytes could have written their own personal applications. >Not quick, but THEIRS...letting the computer be the media for personal >expression. Remember, Applesoft was the common base of exploration for >ALL new Apple II users way back in the 70s. Now there is no common >base for the IIGS...just applications. > >> To do anything reasonably complicated on most computers, you have to >>do it in assembly language or some high level language.. (other than BASIC). > >Now that's a tightly focused guideline to live by! :) I love assembly >language and C, but my first love was Applesoft. You don't have to boot My first hate was Applesoft too. I learned 6502 about half a year after our school first got computers. If I had owned my own machine it would have been a lot sooner, I'm sure. >GS/OS to get it running, it almost never destroys the machine state no >matter how many mistakes you make, and it's interpreted. It used nearly >the entire feature-set of the Apple II Plus. It made just about every >Apple owner a potential programmer right out of the box. >--- >Dave Seah | Omnidyne Systems-M | INET: seah@ee.rochester.edu | -- ------------- Jerry Penner alberta!bode!jpenne Edmonton, Alberta, Canada