🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <24958@cup.portal.com> Bob_BobR_Retelle@cup.portal.com writes:
>Just one question in this discussion...
> 
>If Atari has such a low opinion of the "end users" who buy their machines,
>and can assume that 90% of them only want to run programs, not write them,
>why has Atari traditionally supplied a   *programming language*   with the
>computers..?
> 
>In fact, my ST came with  *two*  programming languages...
> 
>BobR

Bob,
It seems to me that supplying a language like Basic fits exactly into
the type of support that Atari is capable of providing at the moment --
they'll supply a language to everyone if they don't need to tell them
what they're doing wrong when they get bugs using it.  Anyone can go
out and buy a Basic book and figure it out themselves.

Keep in mind that Atari is a _small_ company, the programmers that you
see on the net are a _sizable_ portion of their entire programming staff.
We all work really hard to give people support, but we've got jobs to
do also, and don't read news all day.  Atari _has_ a technical support
person, for developers, but then again, resources are limited.

Now, you're gonna say "why doesn't Atari release all their documentation
instead of hiding it, then people would stop clamouring about support."
Unfortunately, this ain't true.  The more people have documentation
from Atari, the more they feel that they can ask Atari about problems
with their programs.  The staff required to support a book like DE RE ATARI
is HUGE, GIGANTIC, and was nice at the time, but the Tramiel's Atari
doesn't run on that kinda $$.

You _can_ get all the documentation you need to write fine Atari GEM based
programs out of MWC's manual, or books like "Programming the Atari ST",
which is a fine book... And I like to use the "Programmer's Guide to GEM",
although it's also fraught with frustrating translations between IBM and
Atari world GEMs, and some things that are just plain wrong.  If you want,
you can grab the Atari developer's docs for about $100 (last I checked,
don't quote me on it ;-)).  That's a fine reference manual, as long as
you're used to 'man' pages... ;-).

Woah, been on a soapbox for a little there...
Um, ok, seriously, I know the end user's gonna buy the ST for a little
programming work, but the moment they start thinking about _real_
programming, they should go out and buy a good C compiler (or pick your
favorite language).  Is it _really_ the job of Atari to supply the
end user with the language(s) and documentation for the price they
charge you for the computer? Ok, I don't think so.  I think it's
_perfectly reasonable_ to charge for that kind of software and docs,
which you'll note, Apple does too ;-).  It's a service, just like
anything else in the computer world, and you're gonna have to pay.
Developers _do_ get discounts on hardware... They _do_ have someone to
call when they've got problems... You gotta pay.

Atari doesn't have a low opinion of the end user, it has simply reduced
what it ships with the machine to what it deems is the lowest common
denominator among the buyers of the machine -- what _everyone_ is gonna
find useful.  Thus the prices remain low, and you get something neato.
If you want more, ok, you'll have to buy it, but _what_ you buy is
now up to _you_, and not Atari.  They don't spend your money _for_ you.

--Kenneth "kens" Soohoo				(soohoo@cory.Berkeley.Edu)
  Atari Hacker (Atari's Hacker...)
  "It could be worse, you could get hit by a bus..."
  My opinions are my OWN, _not_ necessarily Atari's. But "hey", who knows?