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From: info-mac@uw-beaver (info-mac)
Newsgroups: fa.info-mac
Subject: Re: New perspectives on Macintosh   [from INFO-MCIRO]
Message-ID: <1155@uw-beaver>
Date: Mon, 9-Jul-84 03:27:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: uw-beaver>.1155
Posted: Mon Jul  9 03:27:16 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 10-Jul-84 00:37:01 EDT
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Organization: U of Washington Computer Science
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From: Werner Uhrig  <CMP.WERNER@UTEXAS-20.ARPA>
RE:
>> The Inside Mac manuals provide almost 3000 pages of information about
>> the toolbox and OS and Apple has made many of their best people
>> available at Mac Tech Support to answer questions by phone.

Dan,
	the material accompanying my MAC contains no hints of other manuals
	or support service available by phone.  But that's besides the point;
	what's missing are not 3000 pages of details or babysitting via phone,
	but a standard set of documentation which would allow a non-brain-
	damaged user to live with the bugs and shortcomings of the basic
	MAC-environment, or better even , enable him to debug and improve
	and build on the available basic tools.
	my standards may be different, but the basics I expect to receive
	with a computer include a list of error messages and a description of
	the interfaces.  Even a car manual tells you what the  warning
	lights mean and what to do (even if calling a mechanic is not
	what I call "helpful").

	Compare what you get with any CP/M or MS-DOS based system, not to
	speak of UN*X, and tell me again that the MAC is "open", "open"
	for general use that is.  It's great that you can get 3000 pages
	of manuals, for extra $$$$, but the documentation which comes with
	the MAC certainly does not contain such information or offer - so
	how am I to now ???? (me, John Doe User)

	Well, I guess our expectations of what we'd expect to receive for
	$2K+ differ somewhat.

		Cheers, (for friendly user-interfaces),

			Werner
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