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From: gt4586c@prism.gatech.EDU (WILLETT,THOMAS CARTER)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: New Macintosh Strategy
Summary: The Engineering Mac
Keywords: Macintosh
Message-ID: <16651@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Date: 8 Nov 90 02:57:53 GMT
References: <306@cti1.UUCP> <272CAF47.16091@orion.oac.uci.edu> <2eBi026n031i01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com>
Distribution: na
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 47

In article <2eBi026n031i01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com>, kls30@duts.ccc.amdahl.com (Kent L Shephard) writes:
> For engineering type work a Mac plainly sucks.  Macs are great if you
> never want to see the operating system, or do quick and dirty programming
> 
> I WANT a command line somewhere, somehow, because I DON"T always want a
> mouse.  A mouse is not the ultimate solution!!!
> 
> I have found that programming a Mac is harder than X11 or any other
> environment I've been in.
> 
I strongly disagree with the assertion that the mac "plainly sucks" for
engineering work, or that its programming environment is difficult.  i am  
using a IIci and Think Pascal and Borland Numerical Methods Toolbox to write
a simulation program which will be the key tool in my doctoral research
(sorry, couldn't resist dropping in my academic rank since several folks in
this thread have been doing it).  using the above tools i've done a ton of
programming and had a blast, especially because i can easily display my own
graphics and thus have complete control over how it is done.  i can do my
work much faster than the command line method which requires the following
steps:
- get into a text editor and type code, exit editor
- compile code, and deal with separate listings of errors
- link code to external libraries
- build executable file
- run program, output data to disk file
- use some commercial graphics package to display the data and jump through
  their hoops to do it.
with the mac and Think Pascal, i can edit, compile, link, build, and run all
from within the compiler environment.  by handling my own graphics i don't
have to waste time jumping around between applications, and i can make sure
i get exactly what i want.

as far as quick and dirty programming, both Think Pascal and Turbo Pascal
provide for a simple text window for you so you can write quick and dirty
command line programs.  i'm also not alone in feeling macs are perfectly
adequate for engineering work.  in my department, IBM has held sway for all
of the 80s, but now we have a new lab full of macs, and the aerospace folks
across the street have a lab full of new macs also, and the chemistry folks
have a mac lab also.  additionally, Mathematica and Matlab are much easier
to run on a mac than they are on a command line machine.


-- 
thomas willett 
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta  
gt4586c@prism.gatech.edu
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." - Salvor Hardin (Foundation)