CompuServe Messages

"Over the years I came to take her for granted" – Millions of Amigoids "Yeah, yeah, Commodore's dead, but I'll switch to a cheap clone and life will go on. After all, I get along fine (often paying the rent) using ancient software (TxEd, DPaint, HiSoft Basic and Diskman2) exclusively – all are (like me), digitally neanderthal. I mean, IBMers have had almost 10 years to catch up, how bad could it be to join the mainstream?" said the fool. Here's how bad: I got an IBM 486SX-25 (with 4 megs and a 120 meg HD) 6 months ago, then started looking for the equivalents of my favorite programs. The results were disappointing in extremus. A. There are NO paint programs like DPaint, and those (laughably) closest take eons to do anything. After all, I ONLY have 4 megs & my computer is ONLY three and a half times as fast as an Amiga 500! B. A text-editor (like TxEd) that'll let you edit a 2 meg file, then PASTE COPYed items to another TxEd running simultaneously? Forget it! C. Write a 20 line Basic program that'll load a title screen, then use a mouse to do something on that screen? Nope! So far, I have invested six months online, reading magazines and books and trying the three major available Basics, and am slowly realizing it ain't gonna happen. D. PD and reasonably priced shareware is (relatively) ugly junk. E. Lifesavers like ScreenX and mouse-driven formatters/copiers? HA! Mostly, it's like going from a Mustang that'll go to the grocery store, the cleaners and the park SIMULTANEOUSLY, to a '52 GMC schoolbus with new paint and upholstery that only goes to one place IF(!) it's on "their" route. Why is the above so melodramatic? Because I write programs aimed at making computers a viable tool for the technologically disadvantaged via Basic programming. Because the paltry income from same has supplemented disability checks, making life directly on the streets less likely. Because such pursuits are becoming much more difficult as the "Ins" grease, or saw through, those rungs of the ladder they no longer need. Because the Amiga seems (seemed?) the last hope for a true VolksComputer. Jim Charlsen (AKA JeC)