Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!killer!texbell!sugar!peter
From: peter@sugar.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: bios function 0x7f
Summary: It doesn't have to be this way.
Message-ID: <3186@sugar.uu.net>
Date: 31 Dec 88 02:06:35 GMT
References: <1263@atari.UUCP> <3774@druhi.ATT.COM> <1268@atari.UUCP> <5542@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
Organization: Sugar Land Unix - Houston, TX
Lines: 38

[ discussion of the problems involved in upgrading system software and a
  comment that "even apple" has problems with badly-behaved programs ]

Apple is a poor example. You might want to use AT&T and the various flavors
of UNIX if you want to talk about big boys having compatibility problems.

But even that's misleading, because now you're dealing with nearly 20 years
of software changes, instead of 4 or 5.

The Amiga system software is now into the fourth released revision with
no major problems so far. A completely new file system with different-sized
blocks has just been put in place, and there are still no problems.

Two points to bear in mind. First, much of the enhancements that are causing
the problems in other systems (multitasking, virtual environments, and so on)
were built into the Amiga software to begin with.

Second, there are areas documented (even to having include files) but marked
"here there be tygers". Commodore has said, over and over again, that the WILL
change the system and they WILL break things. They have also worked with
developers who needed to do stuff they didn't support so their software would
continue to work after it became supported.

They have changed the system, and things have broken. But never very much,
and the blame has always been on the developers. There are still plenty of
old programs that do quite sophisticated things that run under the latest
version of AmigaOS.

Moral: Atari should say "the following programs are going to break in rev
such-and-such of TOS. Other programs that make this, thato, or the other
assumption will also break. We're giving you X months warning. These changes
are necessary to fix the a, b, and c bugs and to add these enhancements...".

Then DO it. Fix it. It's like going cold turkey, but at some point you just
have to stop throwing good money after bad.
-- 
Peter "Have you hugged your wolf today" da Silva  `-_-'  Hackercorp.
...texbell!sugar!peter, or peter@sugar.uu.net      'U`