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From: jmpiazza@sunybcs.uucp (Joseph M. Piazza)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: CBM and upgrade paths
Message-ID: <6394@sunybcs.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 8-Nov-87 23:24:22 EST
Article-I.D.: sunybcs.6394
Posted: Sun Nov  8 23:24:22 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 10-Nov-87 06:22:12 EST
References: <5829@jade.BERKELEY.EDU>
Sender: nobody@sunybcs.UUCP
Reply-To: jmpiazza@gort.UUCP (Joseph M. Piazza)
Organization: SUNY/Buffalo Computer Science
Lines: 48

In article <5829@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> spencer@eris.BERKELEY.EDU (Randy Spencer) writes:

> ...
>Then comes the Mac.  There have been more upgrades to that OS than
>upgrades to a Matt Dillon program.

	Good analogy :-)

>And if you are a developer you 
>are getting really stuck these days.  Not that getting a version 
>of the OS that works with your product is a headache, you just develop
>for one OS, and than ship the disk with it.  The problem comes in when
>you try to support all Mac users.  Do people realize that there are
>still people out there that have 400K floppies, do people realize that
>the current release of the system runs 300K without such things as
>printer drivers and the like (there are lots of support files that
>would be nice to include, what with Easy Access and the like out).
>Where do you put your executable that was written for this specific
>OS?  On a seperate disk?  

	The Mac hasn't been as bad as that.  There are many programs that have
run correctly (or at least sufficiently well enough) with many System
software versions.  This was possible because of Apple's stringent programing
guidlines.  They clearly told developers that by following
the guidelines their products should work with virtually all future system
changes and enhancements.  Don't follow the guidelines and there's a good
chance that your software would break on some new System.  (Sound familiar?)

	A good example of software longevity is Microsoft Word 1.0 (1.01?).
I've seen the same version run on a 512K Mac, a Lisa 2 running MacWorks,
Mac+ and the SE.  This also included the change from MFS (retro-fit
title of the original "flat," non-hierarchal file system) to the current
HFS (Hierarchal File System).  This change broke a  l o t  of software
that didn't follow the guidlines. But Word and other applications that
followed the programing guidelines worked with them all.  Not a bad
record at all.  I won't be disappointed if the Amiga does as well.

Flip side,

	joe piazza

--- Cogito ergo equus sum.

CS Dept. SUNY at Buffalo 14260
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>Randy Spencer ucbvax!mica!spencer spencer@mica.berkeley.edu