Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!van-bc!mdavcr!ewm From: ewm@mdavcr.UUCP (Eric W. Mitchel) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc Subject: Re: What can't it do? Loss of... Message-ID: <893@mdavcr.UUCP> Date: 11 Jul 90 17:29:57 GMT References: <886@mdavcr.UUCP> <28778.269229da@vaxb.acs.unt.edu> <1990Jul8.220052.24143@spectrum.CMC.COM> <2977@tellab5.tellabs.com> Reply-To: van-bc!mdavcr!ewm Organization: MacDonald Dettwiler, 13800 Commerce Parkway, Richmond, BC, Canada V6V 2J3 Lines: 75 In article <2977@tellab5.tellabs.com> kenk@tellabs.com (Ken Konecki) writes: > >Power users, shmower users. There's no such thing as a power user. >People who use computers are users, plain and simple. Period. End of >story. I don't know where the term came from, but it's the stupidest >phrase I have ever heard. Can anybody even define what a power user is (as >opposed to a powerless user?). It seems pretty obvious what most people mean when they use the term "power user". Are you saying that everyone uses the same level of functionality of a computer? Funny, last time I talked to my secretary she had no idea what a UNIX pipe was or what 'sccs' was for. If you have to ask what a power user is, then you obviously aren't one. If you just have a problem with the wording of the phrase, think of a better one. >As for deleting a number of files in nested directories, no CLI >(command line interface) I have ever used can do this. All the ones I >have seen must invoke another program to accomplish it (e.g. the Unix >shells would call the find command). And, with few exceptions, a CLI is >only as good as the programs it invokes. > >Cheers, > -Ken K This begs the point. At least with a CLI you CAN easily invoke programs to do things like deleting files in nested directories. I find one of the greatest pains of the Mac OS is the difficulty of executing small utility programs. One generally has the choice of a) dragging everything you ever use to the desktop b) finding a third party utility that allows easier access to files c) clicking through nested levels of folders What a drag ;-). Through my UNIX CLI, I can set paths to various directores, then invoke programs by name, without specifying their exact location. This permits me to sort my directories logically and still have simple access to programs. Another problem is that CLI invoked programs can be made much simpler than the typical MAC application, since there is no nead to support a user interface. In UNIX, parameters can be passed to the program by typing them on the same CLI line when invoking the program. Very handy if you need to execute some utility program (like "find", "grep", "more", etc) quickly. On the Mac, one has to invoke the program, then wait for some user interface (ie: dialog box) to come up, then enter the parameters in the correct place, etc. This means greater user overhead, greater programmer overhead, and greater CPU overhead. This leads to yet another deficiency - the lack of a CLI scripting language. While the Mac now has a number of Macro utitlities available, they are a poor substitute. (At least the ones I've seen - If you can suggest a good one, TELL ME, PLEASE). One of the great things about UNIX is the ability to take a bunch of small utility programs and assemble them in a CLI script to perform some operation that you need. I use this all the time (power user?). Of course, one of the reasons why UNIX CLI programs and scripts are so useful is the ability to use UNIX pipes. But that is another issue. Anyway, to restate my original posting, I am a big Mac fan, but I find it constantly amazing how blind a lot of Mac "patriots" are. It is like the kind of mindless patriotism a lot of people give to their countries - unquestioned defensiveness. I think it is pretty ignorant how a lot of people dismiss other users' criticism of Mac deficiencies by saying that certain features are not really needed, or can be done in some other roundabout way. If I need a certain feature, I generally need it. Period. It is not appropriate to dismiss my need with a "You don't really need to do that" argument. Eric Mitchell ============================================================================= Disclaimer: What?!? You took me seriously?!? HA HA HA HA HA HA !!!!!