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From: rjd@nancy.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Documentation
Message-ID: <12059@brunix.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 3-Feb-87 16:21:56 EST
Article-I.D.: brunix.12059
Posted: Tue Feb  3 16:21:56 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Feb-87 09:20:06 EST
References: <544@atari.UUCP> <981@uwmacc.UUCP> <1511@ihlpe.UUCP>
Sender: root@brunix.UUCP
Reply-To: rjd@nancy.UUCP (Rob DeMillo)
Organization: Brown University - Planetary Science Group
Lines: 59

In article <1511@ihlpe.UUCP> daryl@ihlpe.UUCP (Daryl Monge) writes:
>> >Use the Developer Support phone number provided in your documentation.
>>    Oh, you mean the documentation that one can't get unless one purchases
>> undesired software at exorbitant (well, at least *unreasonable*) prices?
>> Tell me again how Atari supports developers.
>
>(I saw the 8-), but still... )
>
>I have been watching this for a few days.  I am amazed (not necessarily
>at the above author, but it was a convenient followup article) on how many
>people are unwilling to purchase the ATARI package but feel that they
>somehow deserve free information.  If the information ATARI provides has
>some value, then each of us must evaluate ATARI's asking price with our
>perceived value of it.  When we decide that other software is a better 
>value, then OK, but we should expect that software to provide the necessary
>documentation.
>
>I do, however, believe that ATARI should unbundle the machine detailed
>documentation from the various development packages.
>
>Daryl Monge				UUCP:	...!ihnp4!iheds!dlm

I am amazed at how many people never read articles all the way through
before complaining. The original poster was not talking about getting
the documentation from Atari for free, that would be silly. But he was
complaining about Atari bundling their documentation together with a
fairly poor C Complier and tools, thereby forcing the public to make 
the purchase of the extra complier to get the documentation. 

To add insult to injury, Atari then sets up a Country Club of these
"developer's" so that they can get information that the rest of us 
are apparently not "entitled" to, even though we bought the machine.
(That's a little like selling a computer without an operating system...
you get the machine, but can't make full use of it.)

Even IBM does not operate that way. The equivalent of Atari's "developers
documentation" is the IBM Technical Reference manual...which you can
purchase from IBM for a scant $50.00 (without an un-needed or unwanted
language bundled in). In addition, I can call IBM tech reps and ask them
pretty much anything I want about their various machines. (Everything within
the copyright laws, that is.) 

Since the ST sells for such a low price, I cannot expect Atari to pick up
the overhead of free documentation, but I also never expected them to 
resort to the method they obviously prefer.




                     - Rob DeMillo
		       Brown University - Planetary Science Group
		       
	UUCP: 		...{seismo!harpo}!ihnp4!brunix!rjd
	CompuServe: 	73537,2737

------
	"...I am not so sure what you want me for!
         Either your machine is a fool, or me..."   -- "WarGames", CSN