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Technology Stocks : Apple Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: e. boolean who wrote (11971)	4/24/1998 1:07:00 PM
From: e. boolean	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213176

FYI, here is one developer's plans re Rhapsody, MacOS, Windows, and Linux: [This is the mailing list for updates to Big Brother.] Hello, I am pleased to announce the availability of a new beta version of Big Brother, 2.0b1. The good news is that this new version, which has been rewritten from scratch, is much faster and much more robust than its predecessors. In short, I expect random crashes to be a thing of the past with this new release. Furthermore, there are many new features, such as support for the full HTML 4.0 language, including frames, support for password protected pages, support for fragments (#there), and more. Unfortunately, there is also bad news for many of you. One of the main reasons why Big Brother 1.x would often crash is the system software itself, that is, MacOS. I consider myself a competent programmer. Yet, after more than a year spent chasing obscure bugs in the networking code -- my code, as well as Metrowerks', since I was a beta tester for their PowerPlant library -- I can state that implementing networking applications under MacOS is not a reasonable task. The operating system is simply crippled with limitations and idiosyncrasies inherited from the early ages. This is why I have decided to stop developing Big Brother under MacOS. The new version, developed using an advanced programming language called O'Caml, works under Windows 95/NT, Linux and Rhapsody, Apple's new operating system. This new environment allowed me to develop a fast, robust, feature-complete application in about one-fifth the time necessary to develop the previous version. I do not like the idea of abandoning MacOS, especially since it is precisely you, MacOS users, who have supported Big Brother's development by paying the shareware fee. However, the technical grounds are really compelling. I am not abandoning Apple; I am confident that the new version will run under Rhapsody, Apple's new OS, when it appears. Of course, the least I can do is consider you as a registered user of the new version (even though you will notice I have set it at a higher price). If you have the opportunity to try it on a Windows or Linux machine, I would be very interested in your feedback. It can be downloaded from pauillac.inria.fr (I can also email it to you upon request.) The new version only has a command-line interface, but a graphic interface should be added within a few months. To conclude, I'd like to thank you for your support. Hopefully, you'll be able to make use of the new version, now or under Rhapsody. Sincerely, -- Fran‡ois Pottier Francois.Pottier@inria.fr pauillac.inria.fr