Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!psuvax1!psuvm!jkt100
From: JKT100@PSUVM.BITNET (JKT)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: The Inevitable 1.4 Rom Problem
Message-ID: <90006.144635JKT100@PSUVM.BITNET>
Date: 6 Jan 90 19:46:35 GMT
References: <1017@tuminfo1.lan.informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de>
Organization: Penn State University
Lines: 51

In article <7797@cognos.UUCP>,
>
>I have been concerned for some time about how having KickStart in ROM is going
>to be a reeeeeaaaaal problem once 1.4 comes out, in terms of still being able
>to run misbehaved but nevertheless enjoyable software that works under 1.2.
>
>A friend of mine has a 1000 and has confirmed that FF1 does not work with
>KickStart 1.3.  Of course, for him it's just a matter of changing KickStart
>disks and powering down/up.
>What about us lucky folk with KickStart in ROM??  Inevitably, however, we'll
>all have to upgrade to 1.4 KS/WB.  What happens then?
>
>Perhaps (he said hopefully) someone is thinking ahead on this and could
>come up with some kind of workable solution short of opening up your
>machine and changing ROMs  on a regular basis.
>
>How about something along the lines of the 68020/68000 boot-up on 2000's where
>holding down the left mouse button causes it to boot in 68000 mode?
>
>How about it Commodore?   Other folks?

I believe this is another case of misplaced blame.  In a vast majority
of the cases where software that works with 1.2 does not work with 1.3,
it is a result of the software developers not following proper developement
guidelines.  All authorized developers are told by Commodore what areas
of the OS not to try to circumvent because they want to allow for
compatibility with future upgrades.  Unfortunately, all too often the
developers decide they know better and start making direct jumps to
routines that are changed upon upgrade.

I do not think it is up to Commodore to allow for lousy programming on
the part of irresponsible 3rd party developers by implementing the button
press access to previous ROM versions.  Instead, it is up the software
developers to correct their mistakes and fix the software that should
have worked correctly in the first place.

If a developer refuses to make the corrections, such as in the case of
FF1, it seems to me that it tells you a great deal about just how
dedicated that developer is to making the customer happy vs. how
much they want an immediate profit without having to pay for support.

'Nuff said.
                                                          Kurt
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