#BBS release confusion!
21 messages in this thread
Hi,
I am going to call BBS on Wednesday, and update my Imagemaster…but I am
pretty confused about current versions, upcoming versions, and the like.
Can anyone tell me:
* What is the current version?
* What version will be Retargetable?
* What version will be a 'reference' release, and have new docs (and
hopefully, a tiny addendum 🙂
* What's the deal with the new, "Pro" release?
Any other relevant information will be appreciated.
//Jonathan,
\\//via AutoPilot
The current version is 9.51; the NEXT version is Imagemaster R/t, which is
the retargetable one; docs are due pretty soon and when they come there
will be NO addendum ever again, because they will be hypertext online docs
that never, ever, get out of date. :^)
There is no "Pro" release; there is an R/t release coming, and later (much
later) there will be a high-end release with more features and etc, but
it's not soon and also not particularly "written in stone" as per
features. Some of the features that were originally specified for the high
end stuff will either be released in R/t as soon as it comes out, or
afterwards as an upgrade.
–Ben
…via AutoPilot
Ben,
Thanks for clearing things up. I guess I need to call the nice ladies who
answer the phones, and ask for an upgrade to R/t when it ships.
Hopefully, when the IM High-end ships, I'll have the beefed up hardware
that will do that version justice.
//Jonathan,
\\//via AutoPilot
Ben,
Is the R/t version going to offer an eight bit mode for strictly
greyscale, or is that going to belong to the high-end release in the
future?
If not, guess I will have to upgrade my ADPro…..
73, Kelly
No 8 bit mode, nope.
–Ben
…via AutoPilot
Ben,
What is your definition of a "high-end" Imagemaster? I've been pretty
impressed with what I've seen so far.
-Louis
On AUTOPILOT over Chicago…
Somthing that takes about 10 megs of ram to run… uses about as many megs
of HD to exist… requires an FPU… and has more features than there are
blades of grass. :^)
–Ben
…via AutoPilot
"Somthing that takes about 10 megs of ram to run… uses about as many
megs of HD to exist… requires an FPU"
Hhhmmm… sound like an IBM program…
-Louis
On AUTOPILOT over Chicago…
Yeah, it does, doesn't it. On that note, I'm using Microsoft Word…
I was (initially) appalled to find out that it needed 15 MB of HD
space (this is a word processor, remember!) but after using it a bit,
it's SO far ahead of anything on the Amiga I've relented and no
longer mind the disk space. I think that when we come with the new
"thing", the reactions will proceed in about the same way. :^)
Do you know why fractal compression (JPEG type) isn't being used on
the Amiga or IM? It's non-lossy and pretty fast.
My understanding of fractal compression is that it's VERY lossy, and it's
also VERY slow. Where did you get your impressions of the technology
from?
–Ben
…via AutoPilot
An article in Computer Graphics World was stating why developers had
stopped concentrating on JPEG and were coming out with fractal
compression algorithms with no loss and high compression ratios, as
high as 135:1, depending on nature of the file. They should start
trickling in after 30-60 days.
Hmmm. Well, I'll be very interested to see those.
–Ben
…via AutoPilot
I went to a local Siggraph meeting where they had a professor who is
developing Fractal compression demonstrate it for a couple of hours. I
was NOT impressed! He said that it was Loseless compression but every
one he showed he pointed out all of the LOST detail, which was ALOT,
this didn't make sence to me. If I remember right JPEG will compress
and desompress in the same amount of time but FC will decompress in
slightly less time but take SEVERAL times as much to compress. And I
do mean `several'. :^) The only neat thing about it is that you can
select how big the files will compress to, which is just a different
way to select the quality of the compression.
>They should start trickling in after 30-60 days.
They said this over a year ago, too.
<<< Tony D. Tracer >>>
No rest for the wicked. 🙂
Is Microsoft Word the same as what you get in Microsoft Works?
=Louis
On AUTOPILOT over Chicago…
Nope – there's Notepad (minimal, free) Write (minimal but better, free)
and Word (expensive and powerful and etc). Works, I know little about
except it's closer to Write than Word, in the text portion.
–Ben
…via AutoPilot
Works' word processor module is not quite as complex as Word's or else
there'd be no point in selling Word. Works' wp is very good, though, and
on top of that, it's integrated with a spreadsheet and database. Mail
merges are a breeze.
Miguel ——– AP, AP, and away!
Microsoft Word needs about 15 MB when FULLY installed (All the import
modules and everything!). Barebones (the program only) it's about 1.3MB.
Now if only the Mac had a blitter… isn't the text scrawl absolutely
horrendous??? 🙂
Miguel ——– AP, AP, and away!
Mac? I'm running this on a 33 mhz 486dx laptop. :^) And the text scoll
is quite snappy – I have no speed gripes with this machine; it's
almost as fast as my 4000.
–Ben
…via AutoPilot
Ahh! Laptop boy! Well, I'm sure my point about a Full install as
compared to a Lite install holds true.
I hope you're having fun with that puppy!
Miguel ——– AP, AP, and away!