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RE: Next Release of Executor 1.99p
On Mon, 31 Jul 1995, Clifford Thomas Matthews wrote:
> Chad> Any chance of releasing new BleedingEdge releases? I
> Chad> liked having those for 1.99n(x)...
>
> Yes. It looks like 1.99o2 (there is no 1.99o1) will be cut within the
> next couple of days. Of course I've been wrong almost every time I've
> made a prediction in the past. O2 will have our new mods, but won't
Sounds great!
> do much towards solving the DOS bugs that we introduced with 1.99n.
> However, that's going to be my top priority now (Mat's top priority
> will be the NEXTSTEP port, Cotton's will be to write the remaining
> pieces of missing functionality).
>
Sounds like the works getting divided up pretty well - I'd like
to also see the SVGAlib port out (soon after NEXTSTEP?) to see what
Executor/Linux can *really* do graphics-wise!
> We now have much more information about System 7 requiring apps than
> we did before the beginning of the hackathon. The good news is that
> we were able to code up a lot more of System 7 during the hackathon.
Good to hear... I know System 7 is like a brand new OS, for
better or worse (a lot of it is for the worse in terms of memory and
speed, although I hear 7.5 does something about that.)
> The bad news is there are some areas that are going to be hard to code
> up or spoof in time for 2.0 and these areas are indeed *required* by
> some of the biggest apps.
Lemme guess - the OLE 2 modules used by Word for Macindows 6 need
a *lot* of System 7 features to support Word... OLE 2 code bloat is
pretty bad under Windows, and when it's spooged into the Mac, it seems to
have gotten worse.
> Anyway, with this new information, we'll be
> solidifying just what we need to have in 2.0 before we go beta. I'm
> hoping we'll have an internal list in the next couple of days. We'll
> then discuss it amongst ourselves for a while, then ask for your (the
> members of this list) opinions.
>
That sounds like a good plan - I'm looking forward to seeing it.
> Hmmm... to have less money than ARDI means to owe more than $600k. I
> knew college tuition had gotten steep, but that's ridiculous!
Well, I wasn't considering loans! :) Seriously, if I had the
spare 10-20 million lying around, I'd look into buying up ARDI, and
getting more engineers - in hardware and software. I think having $500
'030 Mac clones, without ties to Apple, would be great. Basically, I'd
try to turn Executor into the Phoenix BIOS of Mac-dom, while evolving it
as an emulator for IBMs at the same time.
(The Phoenix BIOS was the first IBM clone BIOS widely available
to other companies - Compaq's was first, but Phoenix had the first widely
available clean-room approach for other companies, and would even pay legal
fees... having a Phoenix BIOS was kinda a stamp of compatibility.)
> In all seriousness, the question of student pricing has more to do
> with what sort of distribution we use. One possibility would be to
> have student pricing, but *only* when done through student bookstores.
That sounds good. One of the best reasons to go to college it
seems is to get great prices on software (Office 4.2 for < US$180 for
instance :) ... that would make it much easier to afford.
- Chad
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