Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!mailrus!caen.engin.umich.edu!conliffe
From: conliffe@caen.engin.umich.edu (Darryl C. Conliffe)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Re: '' in pathnames
Summary: touche'
Message-ID: <441fd6ee.b11a@falcon.engin.umich.edu>
Date: 29 Jun 89 18:10:00 GMT
References: <8906290941.AA13520@umix.cc.umich.edu>
Organization: U of M Engineering, Ann Arbor, Mich.
Lines: 64

In article <8906290941.AA13520@umix.cc.umich.edu>, GBOPOLY1@NUSVM.BITNET (fclim) writes:
> >From: conliffe%caen.engin.umich.edu%mailrus.uucp@csd4.milw.wisc.edu  (Drryl C.
> > Conliffe)
> >Organization: U of M Engineering, Ann Arbor, Mich.
> >Message-Id: <441bc082.b11a@falcon.engin.umich.edu>
> >References: <8906281243.AA02709@umix.cc.umich.edu>
> >
> >I agree, Scott, that some of the things an Apollo workstation brings
> >to a user are better than "standard stuff".  For example, I snicker
> >at the "I don't have time to learn the DM editor" comments;
> >it's so darn intuitive that I wonder what could be easier than
> >hitting the LINE DEL key to delete the line, typing characters
> >in input mode where you place the cursor, or overstriking by hitting
> >SHIFT-INS and having a visual marker of the input mode?
> 
> SHIFT-INS isn't intuitive -- I didn't know about it until now.
> I like vi because ya don't have to move too much.
> 
You are right.  SHIFT-INS in itself is not intuitive.  The concept of toggling
INSERT and OVERSTRIKE mode is, and I look for INS on a keyboard to make
use of it.  INS is above MARK on the key, and I know enough about the
Apollo to know that to toggle INS, I hit SHIFT-INS.  I also hit INS on a PC
when I am looking for that toggling feature, and usually find it operative.

BTW, if you are just finding out about it, who taught you about the
systems basics?  They should have made that simple point evident.  Sounds
like a case of poor technology transfer.  (I am *NOT* implying that it
was your fault.  Someone, maybe Apollo, dropped the ball.)

> >Or, have you ever seen someone introduced to an Apollo by someone
> >who knows only vi read a file?  He vi's it.  I love the look
> >on that users face when I point to the file name on a pad and open
> >it.
> 
> How about someone who knows only Aegis and have never seen other Unix
> boxes?  He'll look everywhere for that @#$%&*))(  EDIT key when he comes
> upon a Sun.
> 
And if he goes to an IBM-PC he'll have the same challenge to *LEARN*
how to best use the machine.  Computers and workstations are nice,
but one still has to know *SOMETHING* to be able to make the
most effective use of 'em.  I've worked in situations where I
was working on a PC, an Apollo, and a DG machine at various
times during the same day.  While sometimes confusing, their differences
never were *INGHIBITIN*, just annoying at times.

Besides, you avoid the problem by staying on the Apollo which *DOES*
have the EDIT key! :=) (In fact, I often moved files to the Apollo
workstation to make use of DM.  I have never moved anything for
the priviledge of getting to vi!)
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
> fclim -- killed by a flame -- score: 0
> Darryl -- killed by a flame -- score: 0
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
> 
Ok on the score.  Perhaps it is even because each person
has his/her own taste.  What Scott and I are trying to say
is that we'd like to preserve our own.  (At least, that's what
*I* was thinking ... sorry if that doesn't cover you, Scott! :=)
-- 
___________________

 Darryl C. Conliffe  conliffe@caen.engin.umich.edu  (313) 721-6069
-------------------