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From: hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin)
Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Computers for users not programmers
Message-ID: <5275@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 6 Feb 91 14:01:02 GMT
References: <27A84C5C.24EF@tct.uucp> <13615@lanl.gov> <27AF17B9.72E2@tct.uucp>
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In article <27AF17B9.72E2@tct.uucp>, chip@tct.uucp (Chip Salzenberg) writes:
  
> According to jlg@lanl.gov (Jim Giles):
> >The people I'm talking have used _many_ different systems and have
> >switched many times.  They _know_ what's involved in moving to a new
> >system.  ...  The conclusion is that UNIX does _not_ have sufficient
> >capability to offset those features it lacks.
 
> That conclusion would be meaningful if we knew to what purpose the
> UNIX computers were being used.  UNIX is not right for all tasks.
> Those who claim so have something in common with those who claim the
> opposite: prejudice.

Computers are typically not obtained for single purposes.  Both the hardware
and software should be designed for versatility.  Certainly the BSD version
of UNIX was intended for the extremely varied university environment.  This
ranges from simple ASCII editing to powerful number crunching, and everything
in between and even not covered by that range.

In addition, UNIX is a monster.  There are things normally included in UNIX
which should be add-ons, and not part of an operating system.  There is the
mistaken view that hardware should be designed to particular languages, and
never mind that some programs may be many times slower because of the lack of
particular instructions.  There is far more concern with "Braille optimization"
and never mind what the sighted person can do.
--
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
Phone: (317)494-6054
hrubin@l.cc.purdue.edu (Internet, bitnet)   {purdue,pur-ee}!l.cc!hrubin(UUCP)


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