Roy Follett
Exchange versus User Group
Now that the first issue of AMPLINEX is out I would like to
pen a few words why I felt, together with Kevin Doyle, that there was a need to
'talk' to other owners of Music 500/5000's. I have spent many hours sat in front
my monitor struggling with a particular aspect of AMPLE and thought - someone out
there must have been down this path already, and found a satisfactory answer.
If only I could get together with other users.
This is when the idea of an 'exchange' first emerged. Quite
by chance I was put in contact with Kevin who had had almost parallel thoughts,
and we pooled our ideas on how to make it work.
I would like to try and explain what I feel is the
difference between a 'User Group' and an 'Exchange'. I am, like many others, a
member of Beebug, and I feel that this organisation is run (commercial
considerations apart) by a group of very knowledgeable people who have a
greater awareness of computing than I. Therefore, I have nothing to offer; I
can only take from them. In other words I am 'using' them.
AMPLINEX, in contrast, is run by three people whose understanding
of AMPLE has been learnt in exactly the same way as has its members': by
struggling through the User Guide and cribbing programming techniques from other's
music pieces. So, unless we have personally encountered your problem, you will
not get 'expert' answers from us - only from other members who have had the
same problem and have, by hard work, sorted it out for themselves. With the advent
of AMPLINEX, this information can now be passed on to others in the exchange.
So don't feel that anything that you may have to offer is
too trivial or that your compositions might not be up to some sort of standard.
Let's have them - if only one member finds your contribution useful then THERE HAS
BEEN AN EXCHANGE OF IDEAS!
Published in AMPLINEX 002, November
1987
