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From: t68@nikhefh.nikhef.nl (Jos Vermaseren)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: TT
Message-ID: <1109@nikhefh.nikhef.nl>
Date: 7 Jan 91 13:31:10 GMT
References: <6719@crash.cts.com>
Sender: t68@nikhef.nl (Jos Vermaseren)
Reply-To: t68@nikhefh.nikhef.nl (Jos Vermaseren)
Organization: Nikhef-H, Amsterdam (the Netherlands).
Lines: 46

"How do people think about the TT?"

I think it is definitely a step forwards, but whether it is
for everyone is a matter of what you do with computers.
If you need your computer just for typing in text files that
you take to your work for further processing you can save
yourself the extra money.
At the moment the price seems to be coming down. My guess is
that they are selling many more than they had feared so
the enlarged production gives lower prices. At the moment
one can buy them already for 25% less than the price that
Atari announced in october. (Here in Holland).
This starts making it an excellent buy. Of course the
exact pricelevel is irrelevant because one would have to
compare it with the local prices of other computers, not
with dollars, marks, guilders, francs, pounds etc.

The computer is (if equally properly tuned) for my purposes
faster by a factor 4. This assumes running in TT memory
with the cache on. For a program like FORM each of these
make a factor 1.5 difference. Also compilations with Turbo C
go faster by a factor 4.
This brings us to the software:
Much of the software runs and much doesn't run.
The earliest versions of Turbo-C would mishandle the 68020
option badly. There is a newer version that is much better,
but the printf doesn't work right. But it improves.
Shell programs are also rather problematic.  Many programs
assume fixed screen sizes (and sometimes addresses). On the
other hand it is possible to run in ST mode. With the color
monitor one can run in ST-Low, ST-medium, ST-high, TT-Low
and TT-medium mode. In ST-high one has just a very fast ST
and many of the programs that break in the TT modes will run.
For developers this is very fine. One can try all resolutions
easily.
Atari Benelux tried to get some TT's to developers quickly,
just to have as soon as possible some improved software.

So I think that it is a step forward, but people who had
to save their money for a long time to buy an ST won't be
able to buy a TT for quite a while. On the other hand:
My first ST was about 3300 guilders (currently $2000) and
now they cost 1300 guilders (<$800). Note that only the ratio
is relevant.

Jos Vermaseren