🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <3186@sugar.uu.net> peter@sugar.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes:
>Moral: Atari should say "the following programs are going to break in rev
>such-and-such of TOS. Other programs that make this, thato, or the other
>assumption will also break. We're giving you X months warning. These changes
>are necessary to fix the a, b, and c bugs and to add these enhancements...".

Maybe in a perfect world they *should* do this, but in the real world there's
no way in heck they *can* do it.  It's a no win situation for Atari, so
they have to take the "lose the least" option.

Who's going to fix the broken programs?  Not the developers who aren't
in the ST business anymore.   Maybe Atari?   HA!

Some of the programs that would break come in Atari Corp. boxes, yet I doubt
if Atari would spend a single dime to fix any of them.

Like someone else said, I always try to follow the rules.  Even so, ROM
changes can break stuff you didn't know was "TOS dependent".   I solve
this problem by letting registered users download free updates from our
BBS.  Many of the programs that would break however don't have anybody to
fix them anymore and there isn't enough new developmewnt going on to
replace all the programs with new software.  And Atari can't afford to
lose any of the ST applications since there is less and less new stuff
coming out.

It would cost Atari money to solve this problem, so you can bet that they
will take the most inexpensive route which is to hack up TOS enough to
get improvements without sacrificing too much compatibility.  Not a bad
choice really.  This leaves the option of hoping a third party (somebody
elses money) develops a better OS, or if there's enough growth in the future
Atari could develop a real OS and make it an option, letting users know
that it might break old software.  It's business, you know.
-- 
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