Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!scea!paulk
From: paulk@anon.nymserver.com (paulk)
Newsgroups: scea.yaroze.programming.2d_graphics,scee.yaroze.programming.2d_graphics
Subject: Re: General Complaining
Date: Sat, 09 Aug 1997 22:53:58 GMT
Organization: The Hacker's Shack
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In article <33e8341d.21570202@news.scea.sony.com>, jamin1@psu.edu (Jamin Frederick) wrote:
>        I'm not sure what Sony's intention with the Yaroze was, but if
>the objective was to create a bigger developer base, 

>                                                            I know
>that this is supposed to be a "hobbyist" development kit and we're to
>seek out all the information for ourselves

I don't think that Sony was trying to (greatly) increase the number of 
Playstation developers, at least not commercial-quality ones.  As you say, 
this system was designed specifically for weekend hobbyists, not anyone who's 
trying to make any money (other than becoming more hirable).

Rather, Yaroze is much like my old Apple // or my friend's Commodore 64 -- 
machines we had fun investigating, playing with, and seeing what we could make 
do.  We never really (well, seriously) expected to do anything famous or 
profitable with them, but it sure was fun 'hacking' on them.

I've seen this argument a number of times on these newsgroups, that the 
documentation is this, the support is that, and why isn't Sony doing more to 
educate us?  On the contrary, I've seen a *LOT* of information come from Sony 
employees here on their newsgroups and from the websites.  Certainly more 
information than we got from Apple or Commodore!  

Folks, there's (a BUNCH) of examples out there to download, look at, change, 
and basically learn from.  Not all of them are documented line-by-line, but 
they certainly are educational.  If you don't understand something, look it 
up, change it around and see what happens, ask the author or others in the 
Yaroze community.  But don't get frustrated and start yelling and screaming 
and demanding things.

Now, that's not to say I'm totally happy.  When we wondered about something 
internal on our 8-bit machines, we could traipse into the kernel and see what 
was happening -- heck, Apple published the kernel's *source code* in the 
technical reference manual!  However, to get my hands on a Yaroze, I had to 
sign an awfully restrictive licensing agreement which specifically prohibits 
this sort of thing.  This seems directly counter to the "hobbyist/hacker" 
mentality Sony's trying to promote.

While more or better documentation would certainly be welcome, I would be a 
lot happier with a less restrictive agreement.  Maybe even a combination of 
the two -- say, a technical / hardware reference manual (and the permission to 
use it).  I know that involves putting as much pressure on the lawyers as the 
user ed folks, but it's well worth it, in my not so humble opinion.

So, bottom line: great product, moderately good support, but a crappy license.

Thanks for listening! 

>Jamin Frederick

Paul Kearns
paulk@anon.nymserver.com