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From: gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: IIgs "toy" computer?
Message-ID: <14353@smoke.brl.mil>
Date: 7 Nov 90 01:30:54 GMT
References: <90309.212836UD169430@NDSUVM1.BITNET>
Organization: U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, APG, MD.
Lines: 37

In article <90309.212836UD169430@NDSUVM1.BITNET> UD169430@NDSUVM1.BITNET (Mike Aos) writes:
>I just bought an old Sun 2/120 to play with (I havn't actually GOTTEN it yet,
>but pieces are in the mail and should arrive quite soon) so I've started
>reading comp.sys.sun and alt.sys.sun and a little comp.sys.NeXT just 'cuz I'm
>impressed with the machine.  Now for the bulk of the message....I've been into
>Apple's for about 10 years now, I've got a IIgs (loaded) and I thought I knew
>quite a bit about it, and computers in general.  Now in reading these new
>groups I feel like an absolute idiot/neophyte.  Are these machines really that
>much more complex, or is it simply because I'm so new to the platform?

The main difference is that the Sun workstation is a real computer
with a real operating system (variant of UNIX).  Instead of being
designed by two fellows in a garage, it evolved from roots in
academia and the computer industry (traceable to the SUN board
developed at Stanford).  UNIX is actually a heck of a lot easier
to use for developing real applications than is an Apple IIGS.
Because it has a rich evolutionary history, there is a lot to
learn to "fully" master UNIX.  You should work your way through
good UNIX tutorials, particular Kernighan & Pike's "The UNIX
Programming Environment".  Libes and Ressler's "Life With UNIX"
is a good source for much of the UNIX "culture" that is needed to
appreciate the discussions in those newsgroups.

The SunTools, X-Windows, OpenLook, or similar windowing environments
add a ridiculous degree of complexity to application development,
just as with the IIGS "desktop" environment, but so long as you
stick to non-window-specific applications, programming is quite easy.
I also recommend avoiding developing network-specific applications
involving socket-based programs; there are better, portable ways to
exploit networking.

The Sun hardware itself is not especially complex, and you should
have little cause to be concerned about it, as the system is not
intended to be programmed "on the bare metal".

Complete Sun documentation currently more than fills a standard
"catalog rack".  Make sure to get the documentation!