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From: pjm@sdics.UUCP (Phil Mercurio)
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga
Subject: 1.2 Gamma 1 received
Message-ID: <259@sdics.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 21-Oct-86 23:27:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: sdics.259
Posted: Tue Oct 21 23:27:23 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 23-Oct-86 02:37:21 EDT
Organization: U.C. San Diego, Institute for Cognitive Science
Lines: 69
Keywords: 1.2 beta gamma release

<>

Today (Oct. 21) I received the 1.2 Gamma 1 release of the developers'
software from C-A.  According to the cover letter, it is "a possible
release version of the 1.2 operating system".  

I spent about a half-hour looking around for stuff that was not on
the 1.2 Beta 4 disks.  Here's what I found after looking through 
the 7 disks they sent:

On the Workbench disk:
	CLI commands "setdate" and "version"
	System program "GraphicDump" -- haven't tried to use it yet.

On the Include disk:
	New amiga.lib and alink (I don't remember getting a new alink
	in previous beta releases).

	Also: a second "Include" disk where the comments have been
	removed from the .h and .i files (Thanks, C-A, for saving
	each of us the effort.)

On the Toolkit disk:
	New Wack with complete documentation and a Lisp-like macro
	capability. Performance monitor that plots CPU and memory usage.

The best part, however, are the ReadMe and AutoDocs disks.  To facilitate
wading through this massive body of text, C-A has provided them in 
InfoMinder database format AND has provided a demo version of InfoMinder
sufficient for searching the database. The amount of text is so large,
it had to be split up into two disks.  (In case you didn't know, autodocs
are the Unix-manual-style entries for each of the library routines.)
I'm really impressed by this--it's a much better idea than having us print
all of that out.  This is a very strong move by both C-A and Byte by 
Byte/Terrapin Software (makers of InfoMinder).   C-A provides us with a
truely useful substitute for a whole new hardcopy RKM, while Terrapin
gets some good exposure for an excellent product.  Both companies should
be applauded!

All of the disks have "Not to be copied without expressed written consent"
plastered all over them, and this is reiterated in the cover letter.  According
to the letter, "This version has NOT yet been passed by our QA; therefore,
this may not be the version released by Commodore to consumers." (emphasis
theirs) 

They also mention that they will be expanding their software support
services and that they will start charging for "some of the new
and old services."  To offset this, they are offering a bounty for
the first hard-copy submission of a repeatable bug, in the form of
credit toward future software support fees.  Bugs received by Oct 17
earn $20, by Oct 24, $10, and by Oct 31, $5.  This seems fair, assuming
that the prices for software support are reasonable.  

In summary:  A pre-release release of 1.2 has been shipped to even us
little peon developers.  Since the deadline for bug reports is hinted
at being Oct 31, we could actually see the real 1.2 in November.  The
release itself is of highly professional quality.  Kudos to C-A!

Before anyone asks: no, neither this, nor any or the other 1.2 releases, 
includes updates to the Lattice C compiler, and no mention was made
of it.

I hope this wasn't too long.

Phil Mercurio
Quicksilver Software

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