

From: wnerini@ww-web.com (Will Nerini)

Re: RonsWeek'n'ADAm  Sept 16, 1997

>Why are there not more people writing programs for ADAM in 
Z80 assembly language? Why are there not more people writing
programs for ADAM in C or SmartBasic 1.x? 

(Will reply:) 
I'll wager because the mainstream computer industry has moved
farther and farther away from the idea DIY computing. With the
advent of personal computers we were doing it all ourselves.  
BASIC was supplied with everything, and most people knew the
way to get the best S/W was to write it themselves. Our PD 
industry flourished, and a near-infinite variety of programs 
was developed. That has changed. Although Visual Basic for 
Windoze is as easy(easier) to use than the old BASICs of the 
past, it is priced beyond the reach of most everyone, say 
$500 for a useful version(the "pro" edition). Who would have 
even _thought_ that computers wouldn't come packaged with SOME
way of controlling them, other than on a merely cosmetic level.
So, people have come to accept that "programming is 
impossible", and that it's best left to "professionals" like 
myself.  

> For that matter, why are there not more people writing pro-
grams for ADAM in Forth, Pascal, Fortran, or whatever their 
heart pleases? Why don't you write programs for the ADAM?
 
OK Ron, gimme some time to pick it all up again. While I'm 
mostly talking though my hat at this point, It seems from my 
rather shallow(so far) view of the current Adam scene, what we
need most is a high-level, compilable language. Either some 
sort of "SmartBasic blitzer"(compiler), a pascal system, a 'C'
compiler, or maybe best of all, a customized language for the
Adam, like Promal for the C64, Action! for the Atari 8 bits, or
even "e" for the Amiga. But for now, I'm gonna start in SB1x 
with Z-80 asm routines.   

On a temporarily lighter note, I've settled on my first task,
a _great_ filemanager program. filemanager is a decent product,
does it's job, but it's hardly up to snuff. i'm going to try 
and make it multi-drive(display move than one drive at a time,
implement all sorts of copy, rename, etc functions. definitely 
make use of the SmartKey metaphor, etc. 

> Have you ever wondered about this deep and painful question?
Sometimes people I know put up emotional fences when the subject
of programming comes up. They don't even want to talk about it. 
I've never understood that.  Under those circumstances I often
get the impression people feel that the conversation has shifted
from whatever was legitimate to that which is not, to something 
that is almost a mystical and cauldron bubbling art. It's not 
really rocket science you know.  

I agree wholly. See Above. I find people beginning to defer to 
me on _ANY_ computer related issue. I sometimes think people 
see me as "The Village Wizard" which spooks me.  But it can 
sometimes seem that way; case in point follows: 
....Explanation of FUBARed software distribution troubles 
deleted.


> I shall have to write Gene Welch and tell him all this.

See, this brings up one of my pet peeves, to (mis)quote Trash
can butt, "It's the User Interface stupid." While things have 
gotten a little better in the industry, for the most part
programmers like myself take little or no time to learn the 
astetics(sp) of how to make something useable to people. This 
need runs from Setup to Docs, to removal.  Well, I try, but 
am no shinning example myself. 

> I suppose it might serve to explain why there aren't more 
people writing programs for ADAM.  

AGREED!


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