Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!ucsd!rutgers!att!pegasus!ech
From: ech@pegasus.ATT.COM (Edward C Horvath)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Apple's APDA: G'bye Amateurs & Fans
Message-ID: <2567@pegasus.ATT.COM>
Date: 4 Feb 89 20:23:08 GMT
References: <391zebolskyd@byuvax.bitnet>
Organization: AT&T ISL Middletown NJ USA
Lines: 41

From article <391zebolskyd@byuvax.bitnet>, by zebolskyd@byuvax.bitnet:

> But I think the most horrible thing they have done is to kill the Certified
> Developer's program (free) and replace it with the Apple Partners program
> ($600 - SIX HUNDRED BUCKS - per year). Perhaps they are trying to snuff
> small developers and potential ones.

OK, I gotta put in my two bucks worth (was two cents before APDA went
in-house :=)

When the CDP started there was MacWrite and MacPaint.  There was Lisa pascal.
There were only 128K Macs, and they were a joke.  We loved 'em, but they
were a joke (remember the Commodore 128 came out at the same time for under
$300).

Today there's APDA, there's MacTutor, there are more C and pascal and
miscellaneous languages and developer tools than I can list, there are mutual
support groups on CI$, GENie, Delphi, UseNet, etc, dozens of books including
IM, over 200 technotes...

If you need the handholding that Mac Developer Tech Support (MacDTS) provides,
and you are prepared to pay for it, become an Apple Partner.  If you're a
"small developer," you still have access to all the other materials, from
APDA if nowhere else, at the same prices everybody else pays.  For example,
I got my "developer copy" of 6.0.3 early this week.  Today it's up on GENie.
At $5/hour it might cost $20 to get it, or could wait 'til next week and
get a *free* copy from my local dealer.

I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to "re-up" when they ask for the
$600.  Probably, because the two or three times a year I need an answer to
a question only DTS can answer, I need it yesterday.  And I'm making enough
on my products to pay the freight.

Meantime, Larry Rosenstein, Don Allen, Steve Brecher, Leonard Rosenthol,
and lots of of other "heavies" in- and outside of Apple correspond on this
net.  Their advice is frequently BETTER than you can get from MacDTS.

Relax, enjoy the ride.  Why do you care if Apple charges for something
YOU DON'T NEED ANYMORE?

=Ned Horvath=