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From: tbandit@athena.mit.edu (Carlos E Reategui)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: IIGS. Whats happening With this Beast
Message-ID: <1991Apr10.170423.26431@athena.mit.edu>
Date: 10 Apr 91 17:04:23 GMT
References: <1335.apple.a2.net@pro-nbs>
Sender: news@athena.mit.edu (News system)
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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In article <1335.apple.a2.net@pro-nbs> asong@pro-nbs.cts.com (Andi Song) writes:
...
>still ain't got none SCSI port standard. Otherwise, it's a fantastic
>machine, and a definite 100X improvement over the IIc and IIe! (And you
>still have backwards compatibility!)
              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This can be considered very cool on Apple's part, but is probably what led
Apple to build a new computer (ie Mac, ok ok LISA came first).
It is pretty tough to build a better computer when you are trying to maintain
backwards compatibility with a machine like the Apple II where you're slots are
8bit wide slots and the CPU is too.  They did a hell of a job in making the GS
slot compatible.  The toughest part in making an infinitely better Apple II,
which is what a lot of us you like see, is making it software compatible. It
really limits Apple when they can't relocate their code (ROM, Traps, hooks)
because most the software out there is so hardware dependent.  Evcerything out
there would crash in a big way.  They tried pushing away from that with the
GS/OS and toolbox calls, where you simply make the call to thier functions
and they take care of making it work on the hardware.  Its true you can take
full advantage of a machine that way but it is definitely easier to keep making
faster and better machines and still maintain compatibility. If you don't
think so look at the Mac family.

>----
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Carlos
tbandit@athena.mit.edu