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From: dorner@pequod.cso.uiuc.edu (Steve Dorner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: macsh
Message-ID: <1991Mar18.204001.3588@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 18 Mar 91 20:40:01 GMT
References: <1991Mar18.190800.19303@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
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Organization: University of Illinois at U-C
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In article <1991Mar18.190800.19303@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> gould@theory.tn.cornell.edu (EWD) writes:
>Unix side, but if I could just get the source files over where
>I could grep and vi them, and type "make" to transport modified
>files for a compile and link without touching a mouse that would
>be close enough.  And no, it doesn't have to be free.

Sounds like my setup almost exactly.

I do all my writing, editing, and analysis on my NeXT cube.  When I'm
ready for compile/test, I tr the touched files into a special directory,
which is exported (via NFS/Gatorbox/AppleShare) to my Mac.  I then
use MPW to copy the files to local disk and compile my app.

You could do the same thing with CAP and a FastPath (or Gatorbox, or
Multigate, or...), or one of the mac NFS products (TWG or Intercon).

Why go through all the trouble?  Well, several reasons:

1. Arithmetic.  5x7x72x2 is pretty lame compared to 9x12x92x4.

2. Performance.  I can say 'go SYMBOL' and have all my source files that
reference SYMBOL up in a few seconds.  If I made an MPW command for that,
I'd be waiting forever.

3. Protection.  At least my editor is safe from buggy versions of my program.

4. Isolation.  It's really nice to be able to use macsbug AND look at my
source.

5. Protection, revisited.  I can read news or edit my source while my mac
(blown away by a particularly bad crash) reboots.

6. Performance, revisited.  I can get work done while MPW compiles.  This
is, uh, painful on the mac.

7. Familiarity.  I don't know and don't want to know the MPW metacharacters,
or the scripting language.  Gimme grep and perl any old day.
--
Steve Dorner, U of Illinois Computing Services Office
Internet: s-dorner@uiuc.edu  UUCP: uunet!uiucuxc!uiuc.edu!s-dorner