Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!ucsd!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!apollo!rehrauer
From: rehrauer@apollo.HP.COM (Steve Rehrauer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: STE DMA sound (documentation posted)
Message-ID: <48e598ff.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM>
Date: 27 Feb 90 16:37:00 GMT
References: <22463@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> <37193@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>
Sender: root@apollo.HP.COM
Reply-To: rehrauer@apollo.HP.COM (Steve Rehrauer)
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Apollo Division - Chelmsford, MA
Lines: 52

In article <37193@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> kclenden@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Kevin Clendenien) writes:
>In article <22463@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> cr1@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Chris Roth) writes:
>>   I am glad that SOMEONE at least is posting information about Atari
>>machines, Atari sure isn't going to do it!  It is a sad state of
>>affairs when you have to spend a couple of hundred bucks just to get
>>information on your machine.  
>
>   Don't be so glad.  If people keep breaking their agreements with 
>Atari not to publish this information, Atari will have no choice but
>to restrict the information even further.

Sorry, that line of reasoning seems retarded.  I understand that Atari
cannot afford to give away disks and manuals and software.  And if
developer information includes advance notice of corporate strategy
(e.g.: notice of pending new products), then yes, Atari must ask for
some restraint.  They deserve it, in that case.

But what was posted hardly warrants any concern from Atari -- if anything,
they should be happy to see such information spread to the four winds.  No
one at Atari had to type it up & post it, nor pay for distribution.  If it
makes a feature of their product line more accessible, then what in god's
name is the harm in that?  So what if someone propagates the information
and doesn't dot their i's correctly?  It's regrettable, but hardly a tragedy
or legal liability for Atari.  What do you think disclaimers are for?

>   As far as having to spend a couple of hundred bucks just to get
>information on your machine, this is no different than IBM, Mac, or
>Amiga computers.  When you buy IBM and DOS, do you get a technical
>reference manual?  NO!

Neither do you have representatives of IBM, Apple or Commodore chiding
people for telling others how to program their machines.  Not for giving
*incorrect* information, mind, just information.

What was posted wasn't source code.  It didn't cause a loss of whatever
competitive edge Atari may have.  I'm not flaming Kevin Clendenien, and
Atari may have the legal rights to build fences around anything they damn
well please, but it sure seems dumb in cases like this.  What, are they
in business to sell hardware or developer kits??

>  Sure it's available, but at a cost.  This
>same scenario is played out with both Mac and Amiga computers.  You
>can find information on the Atari line of computers without having
>to become a developer.  But, just as with the above mentioned
>computers, you will have to pay for it.  I wish information was
>free, but we all know that just ain't so.  Knowledge makes the world
>go round.  Not just in the computer field, but in every field.

Right, so don't defend arbitrary suppression of knowledge.
--
>>"Aaiiyeeee!  Death from above!"<< | Steve Rehrauer, rehrauer@apollo.hp.com
   "Flee, lest we be trod upon!"    | The Apollo System Division of H.P.