TEAM-ADA Archives

Team Ada: Ada Programming Language Advocacy

TEAM-ADA@LISTSERV.ACM.ORG

Options: Use Forum View

Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
"Robert I. Eachus" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Robert I. Eachus
Date:
Wed, 22 Apr 1998 19:10:25 -0400
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (38 lines)
At 06:31 PM 4/22/98 -0400, Michael Feldman wrote:
>Knowing this industry, they won't buy "this". They'll say "bullshit,
>software ALWAYS crashes, any idiot knows that," and buy "that" because
>they think you're giving them a snowjob.
>
>Yeah, I'm feeling kinda cynical today.:-)

   That's one reason why I like the Amiga.  It is not just the computer and
the neat graphics, it is the marketplace which says that any software that
crashes is junk.  Yes, this is because one of the chief markets for the
machine requires this level of reliability.  (Real-time graphics for sports
events and TV news.)

   What happens is that you go out on the web and say "My machine crashed
last night for the first time in six months."  If several people finger
that software you installed last night as "known buggy crap" you take it
off your machine and no one else buys it.  There are a lot of games that I
might have bought except for the "buggy" reviews, and exactly one
"Civilization" that I bought in spite of reviews that said it crashed.  But
when it comes to "productivity" software or anything that stays installed,
any reviewer saying it is buggy is enough to kill a product.

   (And yes, Microsoft did start out making software for the Amiga.  Amiga
Basic, with a few user developed patches that Microsoft refused to put in
;-) is still considered a decent product.  Other than that, any Microsoft
software you find on an Amiga is running in emulation mode.  (Hmmm.  Better
explain that for the uninitiated.  I can run MS-DOS, Windows, Windows 95,
or even Windows NT on my Amiga.  (There is also Macintosh emulation
software but I don't have it.)   However, if Microswear Word crashes in
emulation mode, not only does AmigaDOS keep running but I can recover
potentially lost work.

                                        Robert I. Eachus

with Standard_Disclaimer;
use  Standard_Disclaimer;
function Message (Text: in Clever_Ideas) return Better_Ideas is...

ATOM RSS1 RSS2