NetNews Offline 2/NetNews Offline Volume 2.iso/news/comp/sys/amiga/programmer/1582

Internet Message Format | 1996-08-05 | 5.6 KB

Path: EU.net!sun4nl!xs4all!marketgraph!rvg
From: [e-mail] (Ruud van Gaal)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Re: Demo/game to OS friendly part II
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 96 13:33:03 CET
References: <[e-mail]> <9PxXx*[e-mail]> <4des65$[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <4djpni$[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
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In <4djpni$[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Michael van Elst)
wrote:

>"Jyrki Saarinen" <[e-mail]> writes:
>
>>Why is it that you are constantly bashing other people trying
>>to get information?
>
>They try to get information a) to produce junk and b) to
>assemble some half-knowledge that produces more junk.
>
>>What is the point? If you dont like
>>c0d3rz, a better way would be like telling them how
>>to program so they would not be c0d3rz anymore.. ;)
>
>I did tell them for years. They refused to listen.

When I first jumped into the Internet, some 9 years ago, it seemed a great
place for worldly talks on a high level. However, 9 years later (read: NOW),
I must say that I'm impressed with the problems people get when faced with
the variety of the world's inhabitants.

OK, so there is a large group of cod3rz who program the hardware directly,
taking advantage of optimizing code for parallel instructions, directly
poking the hardware, searching for invalid opcodes that do the trick .01
cycle faster.
Then there is the group (of which Michael van Elst, writer of 50% of the
world's Amiga news, I believe, is one) who know this kind of programming is
about to die, since progress in the computer scene means having to step onto
higher levels, like using the OS for everything. People who program for Win95
know what I'm talking about. Also look at the simplicity of Mac emulation on
the Amiga; the Mac programs were mostly so OS-friendly written, that hardware
wasn't an issue. And so it should, for professional programmers who have the
need to create lasting and reliable software.
Not for cewl cod3rz; they dive into the machine, reading the hardware manual
before anything else, and make demo's which do yet another useless thing
except boosting their ego on yet another demo-party amongst a select group of
other cewl guyz.
Nothing wrong with that. It's just that those programs just don't run anymore
when you have your printer attached, your drive renewed, or just put your can
of Jolt cola too close the edge of the ENTER key! In other words; they are
not written professionaly, just to get a nice effect. And 2 months later, it
can be thrown in the bin because VBR just happened to move from $0 to
somewhere else (I've never figured out what it actually does to make life
impossible for so many programs).
People like Michael are into a different style of programming; actually he
fits more on a Unix or Silicon or Mac or Windows machine. Not meant to
degrade, but just to indicate that he's trying to build lasting software;
software that runs without major problems on the new set of Amiga machines.
He's thinking about the future, not the now (which in computer business is
the past in 1 second).
Look a Quake on the PC, for example; it's been designed to support 3D
graphics cards now, while there is not even a general standard for this
stuff. However, they are doing this, plus optimizing the code for the Pentium
parallel instruction pipes, because they are not looking at now, but at what
is going to come; even though they don't know WHAT exactly is coming.
Cewl cod3rz are children of the C64 age, and as so many took the step to the
Amiga, it is not surprising to see the culture on the Amiga. The Amiga just
supported both styles of programming, for 2 kinds of people with different
interests. I've never heard complaints about people poking the hardware on
the '64; it was normal and necessary. On the Amiga, the camp starts to
divide, hence the conversations (to say the most) that clutter up the
newsgroup. The cod3rz will disappear as new generations of computers come
into existence. There's just too much hardware on the planet too make it all
compatible. Well-thought out drivers can make things compatible for many
years. Hardware hacking is just old-fashioned, but still possible and
sometimes with nice results. But it's a hobby, and should be regarded as
such; it has no actual use.
I hope the new Amiga will indeed be hardware-incompatible. The demos only
give the machine a C64-hobbyish look and that will only kill the machine, as
for game-playing you're far better off using an Ultra64 or Playstation or PC
(for its widespread use) or whatever; they are equipped for it. The Amiga is
a video-machine, but can only rise as one if programmed so future boards can
make it better, not worse, for running programs. Use the OS.

Just what I'm saying is I think it's silly for Michael to try to righten the
cod3rz path's of programming. They don't and will never listen, since it is
possible. They will be extinct once the last one sees his program crash just
because he added 8Mb of RAM and thereby saw his memory move from $100000 to
$200000.

To fasten the now, every programmer should at least have programmed at least
3 different brands of machines. They will understand what I'm saying.


--
Ruud van Gaal
MarketGraph Visual Automation
E-Mail                : [e-mail]
DoomShell 4.5 homepage: http://www.xs4all.nl/~jwkorver
"...Works fascinates me. I could sit and watch it for hours..."