Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!decwrl!apple!portal!cup.portal.com!thad
From: thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.aux
Subject: Re: A/UX 3rd party product list
Message-ID: <33093@cup.portal.com>
Date: 22 Aug 90 20:23:11 GMT
References: <44145@apple.Apple.COM>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 34

brooks@Apple.COM (Kevin Brooks) in <44145@apple.Apple.COM> writes:

	I've just put a copy of the latest supported 3rd party products listing
	on the A/UX info/update server.  Its broken down by application type
	and its actually getting preety large.  Its stored in a binhex stuffit
	format archive, once you unwrap it should be a nicely formatted MS Word
	4.0 doc.

	Let me know what else you would like to see on the server.
	                                        ^^^
With all due respect for the efforts of all the people doing this stuff, I'd
like to see files which don't alienate those of us attempting to port products
to an ostensibly ``UNIX'' platform.

What's wrong with compressed cpio or tar archives whose textual material is
formatted per [nt]roff or TeX standards so that ANYONE can read and/or process
the material using the commonly available and/or "free" tools which accompany
one's system(s)?

A "binhex stuffit format archive" formatted for MS Word 4.0 is about as useful
to me as is a VIC-20 relative file written using PET-ASCII.

If apple.com has the disk space for both forms (stuffit, and compressed UNIX
archives), then by all means have both!  But a proprietary format designated
for an expensive word processor smacks of "elitism" to me and controverts the
spirit of cooperativeness which has accompanied the UNIX environment since its
inception.

One answer to my query ("Is A/UX Viable?") several weeks ago suggested that
Apple is serious about UNIX.  OK, I'm keeping an open mind; PROVE IT!

Thad

Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com (OR) ..!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!thad ]