Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!mephisto!ncsuvx!news
From: hgm@ccvr1.ncsu.edu (Hal G. Meeks)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga mentality cont'd
Message-ID: <1990Apr11.232906.2030@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>
Date: 11 Apr 90 23:29:06 GMT
References: <1342@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca> <90098.170806JKT100@psuvm.psu.edu> <4087@nmtsun.nmt.edu> <5561@sugar.hackercorp.com> <1990Apr11.182605.288@wam.umd.edu>
Reply-To: hgm@ccvr1.ncsu.edu (Hal G. Meeks)
Organization: NCSU Computing Center
Lines: 45

In article <1990Apr11.182605.288@wam.umd.edu> ddev@wam.umd.edu (Don DeVoe) writes:
>Excuse me, but what do multitasking and object-oriented programming have to
>do with a GUI? Are you trying to say that Apple's interface is less
>powerful than the Xerox's? Have you ever used a Xerox? Do you know what you're
>saying?? Please tell me how your comments are relevant to the power of a
>GUI, and how you decided that Apple's GUI 'degraded' the power of the
>Xerox GUI...without talking about OS concerns.
>
>--
>Don DeVoe
>ddve@epsl.umd.edu

This argument reminds me of something that was available for the Mac a year
or so before Multifinder. It was written by Andy Hertzfield (if you are a
real Mac user you will know that name). It was sort of a precusor of
Multifinder (I've been told that Apple bought the rights to it).

It was called Juggler, not to be confused with Multifinder's other parent, the
program Switcher. It was an alternate finder. Amoung it's more clever
additions was an object oriented Resource editor (sort of like ResEdit built
into the OS). Have an image file that is corrupt, that you want to try and
piece together manually? No problem. Just change the resource so that the
Mac thinks it's a text file (never mind that it really is). 

It was easy to use. Honest. It fit in well with the general idea of what the
Mac was about. Yes, it wasn't 100% stable, but it was a good step in the
right direction. At least the users had an easy way to edit icons to suit
their own tastes, if they never did anything else with it.  

This is where marketing comes into play. This power can be used to make the
overall system more flexible, but it also means the user has to learn a
little bit more about how the Mac handles files. Needless to say, when
Multifinder came out, I was very disappointed. Seems that Apple doesn't
trust the average user. 

These basic assumptions about end users (idiots) led me away from the Mac. I
wanted a machine that could grow as I learned more. 

--hal

--
hgm@ccvr1.ncsu.edu        "Rebellion is like witchcraft. That's what it is, 
netoprhm@ncsuvm.bitnet     it's like witchcraft."
			   Missouri State Rep. Jean Dixon, on labeling
			   "offensive music". USA Today, March 20, 1990