From: captain@broue.rot.qc.ca (Andrew Webster) Subject: Re: Free software and the future of support for Diamond products Date: 14 Sep 1992 12:43:31 GMT
phil@news.ccutah.edu (Phillip Neiswanger) writes:
: harp@netcom.com (Gregory O. Harp) writes:
: : terry@cs.weber.edu (A Wizard of Earth C) writes:
: :
: : > If they aren't willing to open the box to check for documentation,
: : >what makes you think they're going to take an opened box back when the
: : >board isn't documented or is defective?
: :
: : Yeah, but what video card company (or SCSI card company, or sound card
: : company, or ...) packages technical docs with their product? None
: : that I've seen...
: :
: : [ remaining text deleted ]
:
: It's even worse when companies won't give out any information. My ATI VGA
: Wonder was one of those cards that info. was impossible to get. I don't know
: if ATI policy has changed, but back when I needed info. about the Wonder
: I ended up buying a book("VGA Programming" I think). The authors of the book
: even stated they had great difficulty getting info. on the Wonder.
:
: Phil
Actually I have never had any problem getting info on the VGA Wonder.
Out of the box, one of the disks includes a file on how to program
the card, including the extended registers.
ATI also has a complete programming manual available for the card, cost is
about 40 bucks, with is a little excessive, but it you bend their ear the
right way about wanting to develop new software, etc... you can get one
for free.
As well, I needed some information on the STB card a while back, uses the
TSENG chipset, so I called STB, and a few days later had a HUGE binder
on how to program the card, NOW THAT'S SUPPORT!, especially considering I didn't
even own an STB card, I just wanted to write a driver.
The reason both ATI and TSENG based boards are so popular is no doubt due
in part to good tech support, and information availability.