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From: breuel@h-sc1.UUCP (thomas breuel)
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga
Subject: Re: shopping frustration
Message-ID: <1018@h-sc1.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 30-Mar-86 04:09:24 EST
Article-I.D.: h-sc1.1018
Posted: Sun Mar 30 04:09:24 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 2-Apr-86 01:15:15 EST
References: <5208@alice.uUCp>
Reply-To: breuel@h-sc1.UUCP (thomas breuel)
Organization: Harvard Univ. Science Center
Lines: 46

|one of the demos we did try was amigalisp 1.0.  it at least could handle
|(cons 'a 'b), but had an infinite recursive loop when we attempted to
|execute (fib 2) (or (fib N) for N>1 for that matter) with fib defined
|as
| 
|(df fib (n) (cond ((zerop n) 1)
|                  ((eq n 1) 1)
|                  (t (plus (fib (sub1 n)) (fib (difference n 2))))))

I have not played with AmigaLisp, but you should probably write
'(equal n 1)' rather than '(eq n 1)'. Most Lisp implementations
only guarantee atoms to be unique (your code would, however, work
in Franz Lisp -- by what I would call a coincidence :-).

Altogether, the problem is probably with your code, not with the
Lisp interpreter.

|yesterday a friend and i ventured to the local amiga dealer, a computer
|factory store on route 46 in totowa, new jersey.  we were disappointed,
|partly because of the dealer in that
|1) he had no manuals beside the basic how-to and amigabasic sections in
|   one binder
|2) he couldn't, or wouldn't, tell us what accessories we could buy for it
|3) the C development disk had nothing on it so far as we could tell
|4) the dealer didn't have an amigados manual so we didn't get very far
|   typing at the machine.
| 
|is our experience typical?  if so, how can commodore really expect to
|sell these things even at $795?

Don't generalise from an individual dealer to all other dealers, the
company, or the product. There are several options open to you:

	-- find a different dealer
	-- buy a copy of AmigaWorld (for the ads, not the articles)
	-- buy a copy of Amazing Computing
	-- contact the companies you find in the ads of the above magazines
	-- contact Commodore directly

To sum up: no, your experience is not typical. Nevertheless, for more
technical information, your dealer is probably the wrong person to
talk to anyhow. For product information, the best source is
magazines specialising in the Amiga.

					Good luck,
					Thomas.