Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!lll-winken!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrcce!rogers
From: rogers@ncrcce.StPaul.NCR.COM (Bob Rogers)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Pexec Cookbook, and pseudolegal system calls...
Keywords: Pexec Cookbook, desktop.inf, shel_get, shel_put
Message-ID: <1221@ncrcce.StPaul.NCR.COM>
Date: 4 Apr 89 03:52:14 GMT
References: <1423@atari.UUCP>
Reply-To: rogers@ncrcce.StPaul.NCR.COM (Bob Rogers)
Organization: NCR Comten, Inc.
Lines: 29

In article <1423@atari.UUCP> kbad@atari.UUCP (Ken Badertscher) writes:
>....  Complete Atari ST developer documentation (not
>schematics, they are available seperately) is available from Atari Corp. 
>for $100.  If you're looking for "real" ST documentation, this is the
>first and best place to get the inside facts.  Believe me, you get quite
>a stack of documentation for your hard-earned C-note!

Do you folks _ever_ intend to publish this information in a readily available
and affordable format?  I can go to my local Software Etc. store and get 
detailed technical info on PCs, Amigas, Macs, Apple IIs, GSs, even Commodore
64s -- but not for the ST!  From what I saw of the developer's docs (I saw a 
copy a couple of years ago) they're not professional quality documentation.

>  Don't do illegal stuff with your software, please.  We are no longer
>constrained to strict software compatibility in future TOS revisions,
>and I, for one, intend to take advantage of that fact.  This means that
>I will be implementing enhancements which will almost certainly break
>software that either a) didn't follow the rules in the first place, or
>b) was built on bad assumptions about the internal workings of TOS.

Given the tiny percentage of the market that the ST has, and the tiny number 
of (mostly tiny) companies that write software for it, can you really afford
to "certainly break software"?  Sure, your approach is technically correct -
but will it only result in further ST developer dropouts?  Aren't you holding
people to standards that Atari never fully documented in the first place?
-- 

Bob Rogers                    rogers@stpaul.ncr.com  or  rogers@pnet51.cts.com
NCR Comten, St. Paul, MN      GEnie: R.C.ROGERS