Remember the Macintosh

As a loyal Mac user, I usually just bite my tongue at what often seems like uneven coverage. In the May issue, however, the bias was too egregious for me to ignore. [The worst example] was the "BYTE's Video Workshop" report. Despite laments about the lack of plug and play, the difficulty of getting components to work together with the Gateway system, there was absolutely no mention of Macintosh video possibilities, despite the well-known "plug-and-play" abilities of that platform.

Deborah Yeager
73347.2452@compuserve.com

Wow! A six-page article on implementing digital and analog video-editing systems on the desktop. And not one tiny mention of QuickTime, Apple, or Macintosh--incredible. An obviously well-researched article, with no prior bias toward a particular platform. Perhaps this shows in the various confi guration problems described in the article. The line, "Plug the network card in last and use the 3Com Etherlink III...it's the closest thing to true plug and play that we've ever come across" tells it all. Mac users reading this article don't know whether to laugh hysterically or to groan in frustration.

Mel Martinez
mem@pha.jhu.edu

The article focused on building desktop video systems on the Windows platform. BYTE has covered other platforms for desktop video in the past and will continue to do so. But this specific project covered the issues and requirements of building a system on the PC platform.

--Stanford Diehl