Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!esquire!sbb
From: sbb@esquire.UUCP (Stephen B. Baumgarten)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: A/UX window systems, Mac tool...( Hum Interface)
Message-ID: <372@esquire.UUCP>
Date: 23 Mar 88 19:31:15 GMT
References: <1174@cpocd2.UUCP> <6986@drutx.ATT.COM> <2956@whutt.UUCP> <367@esquire.UUCP> <1529@phoenix.UUCP>
Reply-To: sbb@esquire.UUCP (Stephen B. Baumgarten)
Organization: DP&W, New York, NY
Lines: 37

In article <1529@phoenix.UUCP> russak@phoenix.UUCP (Jan D. Russak) writes:
>In article <367@esquire.UUCP>, sbb@esquire.UUCP (Stephen B. Baumgarten) writes:
>> 
>> Also, there really should
>> be a way to do a Stuffit *.c on the Mac... picking each file by hand
>> is torture.  Anyone do regexp() for the Mac?
>> 
>
>Amen, amen, amen.  I love my MAC, but the one thing
>that drives me crazy on the MAC, no matter what I am doing,
>is the inability to use regular expressions.  This is true
>within applications as well as at the Finder level. 
>
>Why can't I tell my Mac, "do this to <pattern>"  and
>leave it by itself for a few hours?  As a longtime UNIX
>fan, I resent having to babysit my MAC.  
>
>(-: I thought computers were for automation :-)

And support for regular expressions is just that kind of "power-user"
feature that can be hidden from the novice user.  The novice can still
pick one file at a time in the ususal manner, but the dyed-in-the-wool
Unix hacker can type "*dat[1-4].c" into an SFGetfile box and have the
OS do the expansion before handing the list to the application.

Really, there are so many applications that are forced to reinvent the
wheel for those times you need to specify multiple files (in Red Ryder
you create a file of file names for YMODEM transfer, in Versaterm you
specify multiple Kermit file transfer by putting all the files into a
folder, etc.) -- you'd think it was about time Apple enhanced the
Get/Putfile stuff which, with the exception of HFS, has remained
static since the introduction of the Mac.

-- 
   Steve Baumgarten             | "New York... when civilization falls apart,
   Davis Polk & Wardwell        |  remember, we were way ahead of you."
   ...!cmcl2!esquire!sbb        |                           - David Letterman