Gary Priester is a hero

[Penny O'Rorke]

OK I'll get back on topic by endorsing everything that's been said about Gary's inspiration and dedication. Xara has been (and is) a fantastic experience, that wouldn't have been the same without him. I just find it amazing that he finds the time to do all that he does - thanks Gary!

[Jon G]

Gary's tutorials have been a huge help here as well...

thank you very much!

(welcome on board, grymmjack ;-) )

.jon

[grymmjack]

Me too ofcourse, but even with my fastest computer it still doesn`t
feel just right. Luckily my old A1200 with a 030 card is still holding out.

The emulator actually has disk drive sound emulation How cool is that!

Yep and I also had a C=64 what they could squeeze out of that is amazing, I`ll bet in those days the programmers had to make much cleaner codes.

For sure. Lots of ASM optimization too to get as many things happening at one time on such meager hardware. I am a big fan of the demo scene and was amazed by how much could be done with the right person doing the programming. Now programmers have it made

Hahaha, you can say that again.
And apple was great too, also used the motorola chips ofcourse.
And I used Deluxe Paint III and up on my amiga, to keep it a bit
on topic

Man I was stuck using Animate and DazzleDraw (dazzledraw was awesome) on the Apple. I had a ton of fun and learned so much about computers and programming back then. Ahh.. to reminisce

It's mind boggling though how far things have come in such a short while. DP3 for instance to Xara. talk about evolution!

[grymmjack]

I was also a user of the commodore/amiga computers ,cost a fortune ( £300 for a 20meg hard-drive)and that's when the pound was worth a lot more than it is today, 64k of memory etc. remember this DpaintII picture

hard drives for the Apple][ were about $600 and that is just the external disk with enclosure no controller card figuered in - with controller about $750-$800 for like 10-20 meg Sider/CMS

I don't remember that picture because I didn't have a computer that could run DP until I got my 486 DX/2 and left my Apple][ in the dust (talk about an upgrade .

The one I most remember from deluxe paint is the image of the taj mahal and king tut. The cover shots I think. I remember looking at those old ads in the mags and thinking "oh what I could do with more than 16 colors!"

[grymmjack]

I started on a PDP-11, I think that was the number, an old DEC. Then moved on up to a Vax. Both of those not owned by me of course. Storage was was on huge tape reels and output was generic b&w monitors with punch hole cards.

Then I bought a kit from Popular Electronics or Mechanics for a computer. It had lights and logic circuits and it...uhh...had lights and logic circuits.

Intrigued by pong consoles and the introduction of the Atari 400 with a whopping 4k of memory with a 16K rom cartridge, I dove head first into the computing world! With my trusty casette tape recording and 300bps modem, I could waste 2 hours and up and dowloading huge 10K files!

Then I took the path most everyone else did, C-64, C-128, Apple I, II..skipped a few models and went straight to TRS model (forgot) because it could do CPM and databases!

Almost bought an Acorn as they had RISC!!!

My first 8086 IBM clone was some jury-rigged concoction that glared at me daily with its tempermental disposition.

And so on and so forth...

Wow. Talk about the old school It's fascinating isn't it how a program like Xara can attract people with such varied backgrounds and tastes? It's kind of a testament to the program. I mean I know /I/ am very finnicky when it comes to software, and because of my background and knowledge level I've got very high standards. It's awesome that we can all warm our hands around the Xara campfire and spin old yarns about "back when"

This is a good thread. Makes me feel very welcome and accepted too.

[grymmjack]

Gary's tutorials have been a huge help here as well...

thank you very much!

(welcome on board, grymmjack ;-) )

.jon

Definitely .. I am on #6 in the workbook (not completing them all step by step but just kinda browsing) and it's a great educational experience to watch a master at work. I have learned much just in the short time I've read as I said and some of the techniques GWP uses I would never have thought of. Some brilliant mind at work there.

I wonder how much of the current Xara featureset/evolution through it's years is owed to GWP? Probably quite a bit.

I am also really loving the artist gallery. Some incredibly talented men and women in there. It's very inspirational. One part I like is when they tell how long it took (and sometimes how long their better half thought it took too)

Jon, Thanks bud