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From: farren@hoptoad.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Workbench improvements
Message-ID: <2007@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: Sat, 18-Apr-87 17:33:56 EST
Article-I.D.: hoptoad.2007
Posted: Sat Apr 18 17:33:56 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 19-Apr-87 08:28:55 EST
References: <1108@rpics.RPI.EDU> <235@rocky.STANFORD.EDU> <1679@husc6.UUCP> <973@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
Reply-To: farren@hoptoad.UUCP (Mike Farren)
Distribution: na
Organization: Nebula Consultants in San Francisco
Lines: 46

I would like to make this suggestion: after enough data has been
gathered to allow decent decision making (probably now, actually), go
to work on the next generation of Amiga system software: EXEC,
Workbench, Intuition, and AmigaDOS.  Incorporate the necessary changes
to make all of these work as efficiently, and well, as possible.  Make
compatibility with the originals a second-level consideration with one
exception: allow for easy conversion of "old" applications and files
to be usable in the new software environment.  An example:  change the
workbench such that all icons are resident in a single file, for easy
display.  Then, provide a conversion utility that will take an older
disk, collect all of the .info files in a directory, and convert them
into the newer icon structure.  Other examples are left as an
exercise.

Once all this is done, release the new systems software and the
appropriate conversion utilities, and let the normal evolutionary
process take place.  Newer applications will start out by using the
newer resources.  Older applications can either be converted over to
the newer setup or, if necessary, can be run using old system
software.  This all makes it very inconvenient for some users for a
while, but if the newer software is clearly better, you will find
almost 100% use of the newer stuff within a year or, at the most, two.
At that point, offer replacement ROMs for all of the Amiga 500s and
2000s out there.  Result: better software for everybody, minimal
disturbance to the users.

There is precedent here.  When Apple released their AppleDOS 3.3, it
included a set of ROMs for the disk controller that made it instantly
incompatible with the older disk format.  They also released MUFFIN, a
utility to convert older disks to the newer format.  This was a pain,
but nobody seriously objected: the new format offered higher disk
speed along with greater disk capacity.  It only took a little over a
year before you couldn't find anyone offering software in the older
format; everyone had converted, and even the most recalcitrant users
were switched over.  And, it didn't seem to hurt Apple a whole lot;
their sales kept increasing all along.

Incompatibility isn't that big a problem, as long as you provide a
means of continuing to use the existing resources during the
transition period.

-- 
----------------
                 "... if the church put in half the time on covetousness
Mike Farren      that it does on lust, this would be a better world ..."
hoptoad!farren       Garrison Keillor, "Lake Wobegon Days"