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- AMOS - SUPERIOR TO STOS?
-
- Some years after STOS was released, and up and running, them upstairs
- decided to release it on the Amiga, strategically-named 'AMOS'. They
- said "blah, blah, we all know how much better the Amiga is than the ST,
- blah, blah, AMOS will revolutionise both computers forever, blah, blah,
- STOS is a waste of time..."
-
- One of my Amiga-owning friends (friend?) got hold of AMOS and invited
- me around to help get him started. He loaded it up, I looked at it, and
- laughed out loud! He said, "but what's so funny? I bet STOS doesn't
- have those nice bars flying down the screen when you load a file, and I
- bet STOS doesn't have those cut and paste functions, what's so funny?"
-
- Apparently, unlike STOS, AMOS's editor is like a word processor. Each
- line of text 'sticks'; that is to say, it doesn't go off into memory
- and sort itself out into numerical order, but instead, you have to get
- the commands into the right order using the word processor-like cut and
- paste functions. And only when you actually run the damn thing, does it
- actually sort everything out into memory.
-
- "I bet STOS hasn't got synthesised speech with different genders, and a
- scrolltext command" this person continued. "I couldn't care less, I'm
- sure TOP NOTCH will write an extension for one" said I, well, actually
- I didn't. Who cares whether you can have male and female synthesised
- speech, or whether you can do a scrolltext? (shut up!) Commands which
- do all of this for you just limit your options and your abilities to do
- interesting things, like wobbles with scrolltexts, and so forth.
-
- "How much memory do you have left for programs" I asked, with a rather
- contemptful twinge in my voice.
-
- "Erm, about a quarter of a meg..."
-
- "Ha ha!" said I, "I bet you couldn't even write a decent text adventure
- with that!" (Mind you, I bet he couldn't even write a decent text
- adventure with two megs left!)
-
- "No, but I can do a good scrolltext..."
-
- And so on... since then, I have been hearing less and less about AMOS,
- and to be honest, I couldn't care less! STOS is up at the top and that
- is where it will remain.
-
- "Ah! But wait until AMOS Professional comes out! You'll have lots to
- brag about then, won't you?" said he.
-
- "Shut up!" I told him...
-
- Article: BLACK EAGLE 31/5/93
-