Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!portal!atari!good
From: good@atari.UUCP (Roy Good)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Changes/fixes to OS
Message-ID: <995@atari.UUCP>
Date: 25 Feb 88 21:04:19 GMT
References: <4516@garfield.UUCP> <993@atari.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: Atari Corp., Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 36
Summary: Behave!!


Allan made a very important point in a recent posting, and that is that
programmers for the ST, or any machine, MUST abide by the published rules
when designing and writing software if they expect their code to run
unaltered on future revisions.
One of the greatest problems any company has is maintaining compatibility.
It's bad enough when a published, supported, interface forces a systems
programmer (eg Allan Pratt) to make compromises in an enhancement or
bug fix - that is the price paid for an open system. However, it is much
MUCH worse when a good, desirable, improvement to systems software (TOS in
the case of Atari) has to be removed or seriously reduced in impact just 
because some widely used software disobeys the rules and hits the OS
directly.
I realise I have only been at Atari for about 6 weeks (it seems longer [:-)])
but this applies to ANY computer supplier. There is the constant worry that
a major enhancement that would really improve the value of the product for
well-behaved applications will cause others to fail. And, of course, the
congratulations for the enhancements will be totally obliterated by the
flames and flak from those whose pet programs no longer work.
Every feature of the forthcoming TOS, fix or enhancement, has to go through
vigorous discussion of how it will affect existing users. This in itself
adds to the development and test process considerably.
When a manufacturer releases software or firmware which is bundled with 
every system, he/she must stand by it. When an independent makes such a
release, he/she can decide whether to provide total compatibility or to
state certain restrictions on the product's use.
So PLEASE, keep to the rules and understand the impact not so doing has on
the development process.
And we thank you for your support.

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Roy J. Good
Product Development, Atari Corporation

Views expressed are my own. Atari may agree or disagree; they have the right.
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