Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!ncar!tank!mimsy!eneevax!haven!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Apple II manuals
Message-ID: <9168@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 14 Dec 88 06:48:50 GMT
References: <8812112236.AA17022@crash.cts.com> <18236@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 25

In article <18236@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> c60c-3aw@e260-3d.berkeley.edu (Andy McFadden) writes:
>Why not throw all the manuals in?

Well, for one thing they weren't ready when the IIGS came to market.
For another, they would occupy a box about as big as the CPU box and
add immensely to the base price.
The IIGS documentation, when it finally became ready, was pretty
thorough; note that the IIGS is incredibly more complex than the
original Apple II, and it really does take many volumes to cover
all its technical details.

>A side note... there were some rumors that Apple had decreased the speed of
>the //gs+ because of pressure from 3rd party developers making accelerator
>boards (hello, AE?)  I hope this isn't true... a faster speed made somewhat
>standard would at least double the software market; most developers really
>can't develop some products (esp games) because they are just too slow...

I rather think Apple isn't likely to cripple their own products in
order to help other companies sell theirs!  There are many possible
reasons for limiting system speed; for example, it may cut the cost
of cache or main memory substantially.

I don't believe the comment about games.  I've compared King's Quest IV
on an IBM PC clone and my IIGS; animation speed was comparable.  Also
consider games like Alien Mind, which is quite fast.  Certainly we can
use more speed, but it isn't all that horrible.