Where were the Pyro wars?

[Kirk Gittings]

The Pyro Wars as I knew them actually began in 2004 between Steve Simmons of View Camera magazine and Jorge Gasteazoro, an alternative printer working in pt/pd living in Mexico. Jorge was at the time using a variant of Pyrocat-HD and Simmons proposed that he write an article for View Camera comparing PMK to Pyrocat. At the time PMK has been around since around 1990, Pyrocat-HD was introduced in 1998. Turns out that for one reason or another Jorge's original article was not published and instead Steve wrote his own comparison article on PMK versus Pyrocat-HD. Simmon's article came out in May or June of 2004, and the reaction to it started the Pyro Wars, which continued with a different cast of players until early 2007, with perhaps a few dying gasps since them. The major venues for the Pyro Wars were threads on APUG, on the AZO forum, and on the Large Format forum.

Sandy

That's the way I remember it too. The stuff with Jay was more an aftershock of the earlier wars.

In retrospect I'm really not to sure what all the hullabaloo was really about as its quite clear that all these developers are quite good with different strengths and weaknesses. Though I started in the PMK camp I am now firmly in the Pyrocat HD camp......though in all honesty either one can do the job.