Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!think.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!hobbes.physics.uiowa.edu!ns-mx!uunet!sugar!peter From: peter@Sugar.NeoSoft.com (Peter da Silva) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: De-macification of the Amiga (Re: The Amiga's Future) Message-ID: <1991Jun20.180421.22074@Sugar.NeoSoft.com> Date: 20 Jun 91 18:04:21 GMT References: <62@ryptyde.UUCP> <1991Jun19.000825.23509@sugar.hackercorp.com> <72@ryptyde.UUCP> Organization: Sugar Land Unix -- Houston, TX Lines: 40 In article <72@ryptyde.UUCP> dant@ryptyde.UUCP (Daniel Tracy) writes: > "> This is impossible on the Amiga, of course, > Of course. It's impossible to pass a file to an application when you launch > it (clue: it's not... you use shift-doubleclick)." > I meant that it's impossible for the Workbench to know what types of files > another app can open (unless more than one file can be created as a > reference to each file?), and thus easily determine what can be dropped on > what. Why should the Workbench know that? Just kick off the program and let it decide if it likes what it sees. > hehe. You WISH you had resources! :-) I hate it when things akin to > this is used as an argument. "I'm glad we don't have that feature, because > we wouldn't know how to handle it anyway, nor would we want to. Too > troublesome to have that kind of power". Nonsense. I'll stick by this argument: gratuitous incompatibilities like multiple-forked files or files with special types should not be used lightly by any system designer who cares about the best interests of his users, because it will serve to isolate them from other systems. You have resource forks, IBM has their special file types, Sperry has 36-bit words. Each of you can point to the advantages of your particular chrome, but the all act as a barrier to interoperability. And none of it is necessary... any of these "features" can be implemented transparently at an application level without locking people into their own little worlds. > Yes, our file system is highly nonstandard, but very powerful. Oh? Where are the named pipes? How about the built-in ISAM? And the Fortran carriage control files? Everyone has their little "bonuses". The question is, are they worth it? -- Peter da Silva. `-_-' . 'U` "Have you hugged your wolf today?"