Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!mouse
From: mouse@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu (der Mouse)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: file attributes
Message-ID: <1991Jun30.230356.8283@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu>
Date: 30 Jun 91 23:03:56 GMT
References: <1801@sranha.sra.co.jp>
Organization: McGill Research Centre for Intelligent Machines
Lines: 31

In article <1801@sranha.sra.co.jp>, erik@srava.sra.co.jp (Erik M. van der Poel) writes:

> But what do we do about tapes with metadata headers?  Do we access
> the metadata through /dev/cartridge/metadata?

There is a valid point lurking here.  When we talk about the metadata
for the cartridge tape, do we mean the metadata for the /dev/cartridge
special device file or the metadata for the data on the tape?

> Rahul Dhesi writes:
>> Frankly, I *don't* think UNIX users should revert back to the Dark
>> Ages, when there was One Standard Thing they could do quickly with
>> any file, and everything else took multiple menus and multiple mouse
>> clicks.
> I'm not trying to get Unix users to revert to the Dark Ages.  I'm
> trying to allow non-Unix users to use Unix (easily).

Isn't that rather contradictory?

This takes us off on one of my wonderments: *why* does everyone seem to
think that any joe off the street should be able to use a computer with
absolutely no training and do sophisticated and useful things within
the first, say, hour?  This is not true of a car.  This is not true of
a chainsaw or even a bicycle.  Why should it be a cause for complaint
when it is not true for a computer?

					der Mouse

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