| From: | Victor I. Haaz |
| Date: | 1 Aug 2000 at 20:50:25 |
| Subject: | Re: AMIOPEN: Possible distractions (Was: Amiwest news / new SDK) |
From: Wayne Hunt <wayne@amiga.org>
>> My only little fear is in the possibility that winel coders will 'prefer'
>x86-native
>> code (versions) instead of VP counterparts, (i.e. 'forgetting' to compile
>also
>> VP-code), distracting the whole plan. (You know, *roughly* similarly as
>with
>> Linux...) I hope it won't happen. Are there any precautions?
>
>If they prefer writing native x86 code, so be it, they miss out on the
>possibility of write-once, run many (reborn term) coding... The people who
>will want to run VP code initially are those companies wanting to reach
>multiple products, and multiple formats with a minimum of porting, support
>costs, and re-programming. Said people will readily climb the learning
>curve to write VP software. Those who aren't willing, won't make it.
>
>For example, if the AVE were fully out there, and available a couple of
>years ago, a company like Interplay (Star Trek: Star Fleet Command) could
>have hired one single development team to write versions for all platforms.
>Since Gateway botched it, what they did is hire a Windows team ($$$) then a
>Mac team (more $$$), and they still can't run on Linux or other boxes.
>Writing once, for all platforms, at least in this case, would have cut their
>development time and costs by at least half, and provided more platforms
>their games.
>
>What serious company wouldn't go for such a possibility, provided the
>Amiverse and SDK holds it's end of the promise?
OK, but it's only *one* of the new features. Many could get used to just
elude it, going only for the other unique features. Slowly tying the system
to x86 by the above mentioned way. Prevention: we shouldn't accept/
rely on any major tools*/apps until VP variants doesn't works correctly,
etc. (*At least not development tools. So of course, the different
variants of the SDK (and later AMI) shouldn't developed separately,
but well-balanced, in terms of available dev. SW, etc.)
(I'm sorry if it's just useless worry...)
Victor
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