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From: jww@sdcsvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: MPW "Miss-info"
Message-ID: <3834@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU>
Date: Sat, 12-Sep-87 13:31:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: sdcsvax.3834
Posted: Sat Sep 12 13:31:42 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 13-Sep-87 08:21:45 EDT
References: <429@aucs.UUCP> 3811@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU <111STORKEL@RICE>
Distribution: na
Organization: Palomar Software, Inc., Vista, CA
Lines: 35

In article <111STORKEL@RICE>, STORKEL@RICE.BITNET (Scott Storkel) writes:
> In his posting about MPW,  Joel West stated that MPW requires 1Mb and runs only
> on a hard disk. This is NOT the case. True, MPW requires 1Mb RAM, but it CAN be
> run from two 800k floppies. I will admit that this is far from the ideal
> situation, and that to compile programs of any size a hard disk is a must, but
> for the floppy-switch masochists the option is available.

I doubt anybody is a bigger fan of MPW than I am, nor has a 
greater stake in its popularity.  However, I must disagree with
Scott's comments.

I've tried running MPW from floppies.  It can be done, but not very well.
With MPW 2.0, you have to leave 80% of the stuff supplied offline.
Also, I can't see spending several hundred dollars on MPW (unless, of
course, you stole it) and then not spending the money to do it right.

Technically speaking, you can get by without a hard disk, but the
overwhelming majority of MPW users will want to buy one if they don't
have one already.  I bought my first hard disk after screwing around
with a floppy-based MPW (1.0) for a few weeks.

I would consider it misleading to say MPW doesn't require a 
hard disk--particularly for 2.0, where the draft manual notes
"MPW 2.0 requires, at the minimum, a Macintosh Plus with
one megabtye of RAM and a hard disk drive.  The new Workshop will
not run ... on systems without hard disks.")

Moral: if you don't have enough money to buy a hard disk, save some
more money and buy a smaller (cheaper) system, from someone like
Think, Borland, TML, etc.
-- 
	Joel West  (c/o UCSD)
	Palomar Software, Inc., P.O. Box 2635, Vista, CA  92083
	{ucbvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!jww 	jww@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu
   or	ihnp4!crash!palomar!joel	joel@palomar.cts.com