Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!sun-barr!newstop!texsun!texbell!sugar!ficc!peter From: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Patents and Architecture Message-ID: Date: 29 Jun 90 15:10:49 GMT References: <62864@sgi.sgi.com> <38440@think.Think.COM> <62960@sgi.sgi.com> <05A4JU1@xds13.ferranti.com> <63035@sgi.sgi.com> Reply-To: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) Organization: Xenix Support, FICC Lines: 29 In article <63035@sgi.sgi.com> karsh@trifolium.sgi.com (Bruce Karsh) writes: > In article <05A4JU1@xds13.ferranti.com> peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes: > >In case you haven't noticed, the car market is incredibly standardised. > Yeah, a Volkswagen Beetle is just like a Mercedes Benz. Let's see, it has four wheels, a gasoline engine, a steering wheel on the same side, an ignition switch operated by a key to the right of the steering wheel, a turn signal on the side towards the door (except for the bloody french). There are two standards for gearing: manual and automatic. The manual has gears numbered from 1 up to 4 or 5, and reverse. The automatic has Park, Reverse, Drive, and one or two lower gears. And so on... When cars first came out they were genuinely chaotic. The Model T used a floor pedal to shift gears. That's where computers are right now. They're not even standardised enough to use the same "gasoline". > >Your position seems to be that Ford and GM shouldn't have the steering wheel > >on the same side, and Chrysler should put the driver in the back seat. > Ford, GM, and Chrysler all have models with the steering wheel on either > side. Should all cars have identical steering wheels. Should granny's car > and a low-rider's car both have the same steering wheel? Granny wont like > it and neither will the low-rider. They all have steering wheels, all on the same side in any given country. They're never in the back seat, in the middle. And you never drive with a knob, joystick, or yoke. -- Peter da Silva. `-_-' +1 713 274 5180.