Re: Ada and QNX

[Steffen Huber <hubersn@lcs.wn.bawue.de>]

[comp.os.qnx deleted from Newsgroup list]
In article <8sg6g2$eur$1@nnrp1.deja.com>,
  Robert Dewar <robert_dewar@my-deja.com> wrote:
> In article <39EB662D.F2C8B55B@acm.org>,
>   Marin David Condic <mcondic.nospam@acm.org> wrote:
>
> > To use an analogy that's been used before: Which is better?
> > Sony's Beta format or VHS? From most technical standpoints,
> > Beta was a better format. Why didn't it catch on? A thousand
> > reasons can be given, but few will be based on some sort of
> > "Technical Superiority" of VHS.
>
> I know this is off topic,

I know, too, but it is just interesting that so many people cite the
"Beta vs. VHS" example - look at the comp.sys.acorn.* hierarchy to
find even more arguments ;-)

> but in fact I think the above is
> an example of myth, and exposes an interesting failure of
> many technical folks, which is that they do not understand
> what are and are not important technical characteristics.

I don't think the race between the different home video formats
was influenced by technical characteristics, at least not in a major
way.

> Yes, Beta had better picture quality, but that was NOT the
> important technical feature, the dominating technical feature
> was the maximum recording time, and VHS got ahead there so
> significantly that Beta could not catch up.

Actually, this is a weak point. In Europe, we had another home
video format: Video 2000. It had a better picture quality than
VHS and Beta, LongPlay was always in the specification, there
were cassettes available which allowed 8 hours non-stop recording
(with LongPlay in a superior quiality than VHS), and you could turn
over the cassette to record the same amount of material again (just
like audio cassettes).

Video 2000 had hifi stereo sound much earlier than VHS. It had a clever
tracking system to reduce still flickering. The machines were as cheap
(or expensive, compared to today's prices ;-)) as their VHS
counterparts.

The only disadvantage of V2000 was that the video offices (sp? Those
strange places where you can rent tapes) had more material on VHS than
on V2000. Many people bought VHS and then never visited a video
office - it is sometimes good enough to score at a point the customer
doesn't even need!

Everybody who has a still working V2000 machine is keen to keep it.
Only lately the advent of very cheap S-VHS recorders which are able
to record on standard VHS cassettes has made the V2000 system largely
redundant.

It all boils down to one simple fact: technical merits do not help.

And, to come back to Ada, this is also relevant in the language
context. It helps to be technically better, but you need a certain
amount of marketing and "drive".

So long, Steffen

--
Steffen Huber         LambdaComm System - Welcome to Trollinger Country


Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.