Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!bionet!apple!sun-barr!newstop!texsun!texbell!sugar!ficc!peter
From: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: What is a Mainframe?
Keywords: micro mini main
Message-ID: <5029@ficc.uu.net>
Date: 17 Jul 89 13:10:32 GMT
References: <125@inmos.co.uk> <1642@brwa.inmos.co.uk> <550@stca77.stc.oz> <270@gvlv2.GVL.Unisys.COM>
Distribution: usa
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
Lines: 28

In article <270@gvlv2.GVL.Unisys.COM>, kleonard@gvlv2.GVL.Unisys.COM (Ken Leonard) writes:
> And if we take _size_ to be the amount of information in the manuals that is
> currently correct and/or comprehensible to anyone of lesser rank than
> cosmic high priest, then _any_ *NIX system is a very big mainframe. :-(

You work at Unisys and you have the gall to complain about UNIX manuals?

People bitching about the difference between Bourne and C shells would
run screaming from IPF and the 1100 command language. There are things
you can't even *do* in the CL... you have to switch to IPF. Then they'd
have to figure out yet another command language for the console.

As for meaningful acronyms, tell us about FURPUR.

And then there are the manuals. If the command is in FURPUR, you look in
one place. If it's a utility, you look in another place. IPF has its own
manual set. It's as if you had seperate manuals for csh, sh, and then the
normal commands in section 1.

Not that other proprietary systems are much better.

So the UNIX User's Manual isn't a tutorial... big deal. It's one of the best
*reference* manuals in the business.
-- 
Peter da Silva, Xenix Support, Ferranti International Controls Corporation.
Business: peter@ficc.uu.net, +1 713 274 5180. | Th-th-th-that's all folks...
Personal: peter@sugar.hackercorp.com.   `-_-' |  -- Mel Blanc
Quote: Have you hugged your wolf today?  'U`  |     May 30 1908 - Jul 10 1989