Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!ogicse!pdxgate!eecs!bairds From: bairds@eecs.cs.pdx.edu (Shawn L. Baird) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer Subject: Re: Lemmings - a tutorial Part IV Message-ID: <2146@pdxgate.UUCP> Date: 30 Mar 91 08:10:37 GMT References: <1991Mar29.230632.7066@grebyn.com> <1991Mar30.012529.7807@neon.Stanford.EDU> Sender: news@pdxgate.UUCP Lines: 42 espie@flamingo.Stanford.EDU (Marc Espie) writes: >In article <1991Mar29.230632.7066@grebyn.com> ckp@grebyn.com (Checkpoint Technologies) writes: [ ... first discusses some valid points about A500 marketing ... ] >To these people, a multitasking game is a much better example than a >very fast arcade game. The situation being what it is, they first start >writing games accessing the hardware because it is EASIER. The hardware >manual is less expensive than the RKM, shunting the OS does not require >a degree in CS and there are so many more examples available for them. Here I have to disagree with you. It is easier to use the OS than to go around fooling with the hardware. Now, it may be easier to achieve certain effects through the hardware, mostly because you can probably due it faster. However, I would say that the majority of low level hardware programming is much more difficult in the sense that you have to develop low level routines and then still develop high level routines. Personally, I'm confused about just trying to turn a drive motor on and step the disk out to track 0, which will be the subject of one of my next posts. There are, however, definite reasons to know about the hardware, just as there are reasons to have an intimate knowledge of the OS. Now, admittedly, this may be different for European programmers, or hardware junkies. Being a CS major, I've always been oriented towards doing things as orderly as possible and the hardware is a mess. Or rather, it is in the sense that things don't always come straight out, like the fact that most of the disk port lines are active low. I'm sure there are people who were born 68000 assembly gurus and who know the exact timing of every address form of every instruction, but alas I'm not one of them. >BTW, my current address is in the US, but I'm french in fact. This >description matches very closely a group of friends, most of them interested >in programming but none has a high level instruction. >During the past two years, at least two out of five have acquired a harddisk >and a memory extension. Quid for the game machine with keyboard and disk >drive ? >-- > Marc Espie (espie@flamingo.stanford.edu) --- Shawn L. Baird, bairds@eecs.ee.pdx.edu, Wraith on DikuMUD The above message is not licensed by AT&T, or at least, not yet.