🚀 go-pugleaf

JPChang wrote,

>First, EX development is not easy.  In the code for the Amiga versions,
>there is no API in the strictest sense and most of the code is not
>documented or commented very well.

That's a shame.

>Second, we must restrict EX development to the publishers of software or
>the manufacturers of the hardware.  We cannot allow just anyone to make an
>EX.  There is the issue of making an EX that would compete with our own
>products and/or interfere in the development and/or marketing of new
>products.

I can understand that but I don't have to like it. As I'm a programer and am
be the only one to do certain things (because of my knowledge of some special
hardware or because I do not allow other people to get the knowlegde I
obtained some time ago) I would really like to know how to support
existing multimedia software. And as (unfortunally ??) Scala is the
most popular MM product on the amiga, the knowledge is of special
interest, isn't it ?
I believe that doing this hide and seek policy (I can certainly use
some resource tool to get the information on how to do an EX) will lead
into nothing but that there will be another, more open product become
more important to the amiga then scala is now.
Another reason is the lack of graphic card support, which is not a
unusual extension to an amiga. I myself be thinking about doing such a
MM software and after doing a quick hack I believe it cost me 3-4 weeks
to get a program exectly the way scala works now. With gfx-support and
a nice interface to make extensions.
So it can be more dangerous to hide informations from third parties
than make it public...

>Third, the question of support of the EXes. Who would ultimately be
>responsible for the support and maintenance of these EXes? Unfortunately,
>in the final analysis, it would probably be us.  At least if we kept EX
>development in- house, we can better calculate the "burden" of supporting
>EXes.  With third- party EX developers, it would significantly be more
>difficult to estimate.

If you can supply a well documented interface, just like ADPro or better
ImageFX, it's not up to you to make any support for the EX's. I did never
bother either Nove Design nor the guys of ADPro with any questions nor does my
customers. So this argument is obsolete.

>Eventually, we would like to offer an SDK for EX development for the
>"BackBone(tm)" version of our products, which we could possibly port back
>to the Amiga.  Right now, we do not have the resources to support an EX
>SDK for the Amiga versions of the product.  As the SDK really doesn't
>exist.

As I said, not giving any information will force us, the amiga programers to
do our own mm software.

>We shall look further into the CD Audio EX.  Thanks for the information on
>the SCSI-2 specs on control of CD audio.

>Regards,

>John Chang
>____

>John Chang, Technical Support Manager, Scala, Inc. USA
>Reply to: john.chang@scala.com, Scala Computer Television
>Visit our Websites: www.scala.com or www.scala.no
>"Multimedia by SCALA.  Why Make It Harder?"



___________________________________________________________

"Nevertheless smart people still need to eat and pay rent."

Marcel Jantz (MaJa)
Techn. Support ProDev