Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snjsn1!bilbo!greg From: greg@bilbo (Greg Wageman) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: To emulate or not to emulate? Message-ID: <1050@snjsn1.SJ.ATE.SLB.COM> Date: 26 May 89 15:54:09 GMT References: <890525.11385598.000380@SFA.CP6> Sender: news@SJ.ATE.SLB.COM Reply-To: greg@sj.ate.slb.com (Greg Wageman) Organization: Schlumberger ATE, San Jose, CA Lines: 80 In article <890525.11385598.000380@SFA.CP6> Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET (Z4648252) writes: >Hal Meeks writes: > >"All these emulations aren't something to boast about. It indicates that >the software end of the machine using it's native OS is severely lacking, and >people are trying to make up for that." > My ST runs more dependably as a Mac than as an ST. Note that I use >my computer for writing and minor desktop publishing. I use FullWrite >almost daily, finding it easier to use than PageMaker. FullWrite is also >easier to use than Calamus and for college students, certainly much >cheaper ($108.00). Its power and EASY user interface reminds me of the >same principle that TimeWorks DeskTop Publisher transmits in being easy on >the user. > I have fewer crashes while using the ST as a Mac and, in the long >run, am able to get more productivity out of my machine as a writer with it >in Mac mode. The Mac has had some dogs, too. How many revisions has, say, Microsoft Word gone through, now? Or even MacWrite? The business community is much less tolerant of buggy software than we Atari folks are, since they cannot afford to stay with dogs, and superior competition quickly fills the gap. As personal users, we can't afford to simply discard an $80 program because it's buggy. The Atari's problem is that we don't have the buying power and numbers to draw that kind of competition. That is not a flaw of the hardware nor the OS. > With the advent of cheap lasers and the HP DeskJet series, a writer >should expect to being able to actually see on the screen what he will >get on the printer, font-wise. [...] > Is this a fault of TOS or developers? I dunno. However, I really >regret that so many of the ST programs are unpolished and rough while >programs for other systems, as a whole, seem to be finer made. We, as >STers, certainly deserve better and should not have to buy an emulator in >order to have really professional software. Atari can take at least some of the rap for the problems of getting good hardcopy output. The GDOS situation is bad for everyone. GDOS should be a part of the standard developer's kit, and smoothly integrated into *every* application that uses GEM. There is too much confusion about and hassle with GDOS. > Look at programs for the Mac and IBM and compare. We can't use the >excuse that the ST is "new" because it isn't. This summer will see the >forth year of the ST market. It is a real pity that programs such as >Dungeon Master, Oids, and Captain Blood, and Time Bandits, are rated as >the most polished programs for the ST while 'productive' software such as >WordPerfect, PageStream, Calamus, First Word, and Word Up are considered >'problem children'. The ST might as well be new, when you look at the market penetration it's got here in the U.S. You can't cite the European sales figures to American software companies, because they are totally irrelevant to the American market. The English version of a product is essentially a separate product, and the ST just doesn't have the installed base to justify any kind of a major effort on the part of big software companies. Hence, we get after-thought ports of programs written for other platforms that don't quite fit on the ST. In this regard, ST owners are indeed lucky to be able to emulate, to a high degree of success, other computers with that large installed base. These emulations give us a bridge to professional software until the Atari market gets as hot here as it did in Europe. Atari Corp. keeps promising that this is going to be the case Real Soon Now. In the mean time we can boot up our Magic Sacs and Spectre 128's and PC Ditto's, and wait. Longish .signature follows. Skip now. Greg Wageman DOMAIN: greg@sj.ate.slb.com Schlumberger Technologies UUCP: ...!uunet!sjsca4!greg 1601 Technology Drive BIX: gwage San Jose, CA 95110-1397 CIS: 74016,352 (408) 437-5198 GEnie: G.WAGEMAN ------------------ "Live Free; Die Anyway." ------------------ Opinions expressed herein are solely the responsibility of the author.