But my particular profession needs those DPaint functions.
Yeah, don't get me wrong. If you ABSOLUTELY NEED cel animation or pixel art, there are slim pickin's nowadays. The problem is that these things are coming to be a lost art, in general. Outside the demo scene, I haven't seen anyone do serious pixel work in 10 years. And as for animation, the current trends have gone toward the Dreamworks-style 3d rendering. Heck, even the kids' Sunday morning cartoons are mostly 3d rendered, nowadays. Just the same, you could say no one has written any ASCII art programs in years... If you NEED to make a new ASCII image (an NFO file, maybe?) you're just out of luck. ;-)
As to AutoCAD, you compared the 10% I left out that did not exist at the time.
Well, line drawings on AutoCAD are largely unchanged in the time since its early versions... But I'd say it's a lot more than 10% that didn't exist back then. The whole modern drawing methodology wasn't possible just 15 or 20 years ago. Back then, due to the hardware, people only did lines.
Nowadays, it's a whole new set of rules, though. A buddy of mine is a civil engineer. He uses AutoCAD with a civil pack and does full 3d models of the building plan, complete with parking lots, existing conditions, utilities, etc., He takes the 3d model, and from it can calculate required grades, green space requirements, run-off basins, etc., all in the package. These drawings can be multi-acre 3d topo's. You can then use the drawings to pull promotional images of the final layouts, and all sorts of other neat things, too.
Plus all the advantages on the mechanical side. Full detail 3D models open so many possibilities. Rapid prototyping is really heating up. Pretty soon it'll get to a stage where you can prototype a part out of an actual material that would be useful. (Say aluminum vs. the current soft plastics.) But nowadays, everything is being drawn, tested, virtually assembled, and possibly even prototyped from that virtual 3d model before it ever hits any production.
And for CFD and analysis, a modest x86 can pack more than the computing punch of a 15 years' ago Cray or big-ticket SGI, while sitting on the corner of your desk for under $1,000. THAT is an impressive feat that opens some doors to new ways of doing things.
Most of my peers think I am rather eccentric for my well known hatred of Microsoft. I try to keep my mouth shut, as I have NOTHING nice to say.
I LOVE my Amigas. There are certainly things about them I miss in modern PCs. But I don't really have a hatred for Microsoft or the modern PC. It's just a different evolution that's yielded some different things.
And do we really know that the results are all THAT different? If DPaint were still in production, would it still be the program we love, or would have been dropped due to lack of sales? Might it have morphed into a Photoshop competitor? For most applications, it seems that the demand of features shapes what direction programs head in. Most of the things lacking in new software are lacking because they are no longer commonly used. Even IF there were a strong Amiga and DPaint, would you still be stuck back at V6 or maybe a V7 because these features were de-emphasized/re-featured? It's all a possibility...
Of course, the counter-argument is always that no one is requesting these features because no one ever knew they once existed. Also a possibility. It's the only way I can fathom the 5 billion features in Word, yet no good Final Writer style dictionary/thesaurus. :lol:
Occasionally someone says "Well, at least he brought conformity" and I must bite my tongue severely to avoid asking if they admire Hitler for the same reason...
:lol: Yeah, I'd say we could all agree that a lack of diversity is rarely a good thing.
