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From: ewiles@netxdev.DHL.COM (Edwin Wiles)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Manx gives 'solid' ship date!
Summary: Mike Spille on CompuServe Conference...
Message-ID: <2537@netxcom.DHL.COM>
Date: 5 Jan 90 18:43:37 GMT
References: <25557@cup.portal.com> <5229@blake.acs.washington.edu>
Sender: news@netxcom.DHL.COM
Reply-To: ewiles@netxdev.UUCP (Edwin Wiles)
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plav@cup.portal.com (Rick M Plavnicky) writes:
>According to Mona at Manx this morning (1-2), the wait is just about
>over.  She said that their 'committed' ship date will be January 9th. 

dlarson@blake.acs.washington.edu (Dale Larson) writes:
>...but I got real sick of those "next week" stories.  The person in charge
>of beta testing 4.9 (Mike Spille) has told me about delays...
> ...[personal reasons]...[printer changes]...
>...He has not told me when he expects to ship.  If I hear anything that
>definate, I will certainly let the net know.

Mike Spille was 'at' an interactive conference on Compu$erve on Jan 3rd.
He stated that the printer's delivery date was Jan 9th, and that they would
begin shipping that week.  The people who have prepaid for the upgrade will
be the first to recieve it, in order that the payments were received.

He also stated that they had learned a LOT durring the whole mess of getting
5.0 out the door, and that the would be holding firm to a 6 month timeframe
for getting the next release after 5.0 out the door.

Other points that I remember (perhaps incorrectly):

- No retail price has been set for people who do not yet have the compiler.

- The Manx 5.0 compiler runs MUCH faster than Lattice 5.04, but the code they
  generate is roughly comparable w.r.t. size and speed.

- 32 bit integers are now the default, instead of 16.  Yes, you will be able
  to force 16 bit integers via an option.

    (Having had to deal with this sort of change before, I became concerned.
     When SCO shifted to 32 bit integers, all the structure packing changed
     to 4 byte boundaries, instead of 2 byte boundaries.  If I understood Mike
     correctly, there will be a 'pragma' directive which allows you to specify
     the boundaries that the structure is to be padded on.  [Same as SCO.]
     This becomes VERY important for both backwards compatability with existing
     data, and for writing conversion utitilies.)

If I'd been thinking, I'd have turned on my capture buffer.  Sorry!  If I get
into another of these conferences, you may be assured that I will do so.
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