Re: Port I/O

[mfb@mbunix.mitre.org (Michael F Brenner)]

According to an NT worldwide web site, the Microsoft Developers
Network costs five hundred dollars the first year, and then
five hundred dollars each year thereafter, and it includes
the game developers kit (GDK or G-SDK) for that price. This is far 
enough from being <free> that the comments on NT can be considered    
fair. Protection of databases from hardware access can decrease the
cost of the databases by making them platform independent. However,
protection of the pixels and ports from the programmers makes the
games and simulations more expensive, by reducing the number of
programmers with access to them, in particular, since not every
programmer prioritizes Microsoft Game Developers Kit as the most
important five hundred dollars to be spent. When a programmer
becomes debt-free, perhaps this is the best way to spend 500 dollars,
but according to statistics most programmers are in debt, and
might be better advised to pay off their debt before buying the
GDK. On the other hand, the quickest way to pay off debt is to
produce a best selling game, so the First thing to buy is the GDK?

Simon Johnston <skj@ACM.ORG> wrote:

:the comments on NT are a little unfair, we are using it in a
:high-speed near real-time mission critical environment (150+ lane
:hypermarkets) where throughput is very much dependant on O/S
:performance. ... we have had to develop our own NT drivers ...
:As far as the game SDK is concerned I again question the comment on
:price, I got two copies free with our MSDN subscription (if your
:developing MS based software without MSDN you deserve everything you
:don't get!) and I'm sure if you talk nicely to MS they can get you a
:copy. With the game SDK Windows 95 and Windows NT have full DirectX,
:DirectSound, DirectDraw, DirectPlay etc. which do provide port level
:access to the hardware, fast enough for game programming.

Mike had originally written:
> Ed Falis of Thomson Software
>  > you might ask yourself why you're trying to do what you're doing 
>  > (presumably direct hardware manipulation) from user code under NT 
> NT does not provide device drivers, or fast enough device drivers
> to do the kind of animation, serial & parallel & disk & sound access
> that games, simulatons, & robots require. A high level OS has
> advantages for databases where speed is not important. However, when 
> controlling industrial or game processes, NT requires you to purchase 
> expensive additional parts, such as the game developers kit, to put a
> pixel directly to the screen, address a memory location, or handle a 
> port interrupt.