Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.applications
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!tcapener
From: tcapener@watserv1.waterloo.edu (CAPENER TD - ENGLISH )
Subject: Re: General Complaints About Amiga Applications
Message-ID: <1991Jun28.160813.11224@watserv1.waterloo.edu>
Organization: University of Waterloo
References: <phil.7996@phd.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 28 Jun 1991 16:08:13 GMT
Lines: 73

In article <phil.7996@phd.UUCP>, phil@phd.UUCP (H Phil Duby) writes:
> In article <1991Jun23.200930.17561@watserv1.waterloo.edu> tcapener@watserv1.waterloo.edu (CAPENER TD - ENGLISH ) writes:
> 
> Try a few other programs.  ExpressPaint uses, and has used for some time,
> the clipboard for graphics.  Excellence! uses the clipboard for both
> graphics and text.
> 
> You don't like it, then only buy software that follows the rules YOU do
> like.  Convice enough people to do this, (assuming they agree with your
> selections), and programmers/publishers will change real fast <grin>.
> 
> [... next complaint and summary deleted ...]
> 
> My second comment could be considered flame bait as well, but the first is
> <hopefully> informative.  There ARE available Amiga programs that use the
> clipboard. You just have to find them.  If there are features of your
> current <no clipboard> programs that you MUST have <and not in the
> clipboard supporting programs>, then do without clipboard support.  If the
> clipboard is important enough to you, then switch.
> 
> I feel somewhat the same about AREXX support (though it has not been around
> as long as the clipboard).  I make a point of trying to only get software
> packages that support it.  Others may not <and probably don't> care.  Vote
> with your wallet.
> 
> H. Phil Duby                     uunet!keyword!calgary!ajfcal!mtroyal!phd!phil
> (AMiga Users of Calgary)         AMUCexpress BBS - 650 meg PD Software
> Fido net node 1:134/27     (403) 282-5137/5171/5224/5238 3/12/24/24 MNP bps

This is good advice, but a little impractical for me.  I can't just go around
plunking down $60-$200 for new applications all the time--and software
producers don't always include all the little features on the boxes or in
ads.  Magazine reviews are good for aleviating this, but magazines don't
get around to reviewing products all that fast and don't review all products.

Finally, I was not pointing out my own situation exclusively.  The industry
(Amiga industry) as a whole needs a good dose of standardization (IMHO) and
that was what I was getting at.  You wonder why the market doesn't take
the Amiga seriously?  Part of it is the ignorance we all say it is, but more
importantly, (IMHO) is that the Amiga market just isn't serious.  A lot of
applications programmers are off following their own drummer, convinced that
their own particular view of the world is best, writing programs with
ideosyncratic interfaces and ignoring system conventions like the clipboard.
Sure, word processors and text editors all have clipboard support and rougly
standard interfaces, but the DTP programs don't.  The paint programs don't.
The hypermedia programs sure as hell don't.

One more thing, if I'm not going to buy software that doesn't live up to my
(arguably high standards) then there are things (like hypermedia) that I'm
just not going to be able to do on the Amiga--and where does that leave me?
Do I go out and get a Mac or a PC and grind my teeth while I use it?  Or do
I bitch and complain until someone listens?  Look, I know that this is just
my opinion (which I'll admit doesn't count for much) but I work with all 
three major computer platforms and I see what the other markets are doing
and there are some good things going on there.  The Amiga is the best
hardware platform around, but the software, by and large--and excluding
video, is primitive compared to stuff on the Mac and PC. 

BTW, I'm not just bitching on the net but writing the software companies,
too.  I've sent out a bunch of letters but its not just me that's going
to cause changes to happen.  Another poster asked me what I was hoping to
accomplish with these posts (implying that posting to the net was useless).
I'm not really sure, but hell, if people can talk about disemboweling cats
on alt.evil then I can bitch about software here.  Maybe I might start
giving people ideas who otherwise might not have thought about it.  That
sounds really pretentious, I know, but what else am I supposed to say?  If
you agree with me then maybe you'll write the software companies, too.
Having worked for a software company myself, I know that they often just
attribute loss of sales to piracy and hardly ever say to themselves "hey,
maybe people just aren't buying my product because it's not very good."

Travis Capener

