Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!apple!voder!pyramid!weitek!dms!albaugh
From: albaugh@dms.UUCP (Mike Albaugh)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Cynic's Guide to SE #6: Forthcoming Revolt
Message-ID: <548@dms.UUCP>
Date: 3 Oct 88 18:45:48 GMT
References: <9@helens.stanford.edu>
Organization: Atari Games Inc., Milpitas, CA
Lines: 82

> The incredible rate of innovation and product development in the personal
> computer market has resulted in greatly improved user interfaces for
                                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> most home computers.    These interfaces are available on operating

It apears that, to this writer, GIUI == mouse & windows & menues.
To me, it means apropriate to the job at hand, without being hideously clumsy
when I stray off the beaten path.

> Aphorisms:  
>     If your hardware does not support a mouse, then it is obsolete.
	Even if it supports a data-glove?
>     If your software does not support a mouse, then it, too, is obsolete.
	Even if it's a compiler-generator?
>     If your hardware does not support color graphics, windows, menus, then it 
> 	is obsolete.
	My main use of a MAC is PageMaker, and I would HATE to try to use it
	on a color screen. 6pt text (12 pt "fit in window") on a < $6000
	color monitor sucks.
>     If your software does not support color graphics, windows, menus, then it, 
> 	too, is obsolete.
	The MAC programs I have seen which support color graphics do so in
	quite a	rudimentary fashion, leading to rude shocks later.
>     Batch processing:  making people wait in order to minimize computer cycles.
	Personal computers: Making a user wait while his whole file is
	formatted and printed before we can read his mail, or buy a very
	expensive and buggy print spooler that will break next time
	Apple/Microsoft sneezes

	I bought a MAC (SE with Radius Full Page display and Accelerator16)
because my wife is doing contract work which requires it. In making room
in the office at home, I had to get rid of the old CIT-101 terminal and use
a terminal emulator on the MAC. I cannot understand how anyone considers
such a thing to be equivalent to (let alone better than) a real terminal
unless he has never used one or the other. Crude one-bit-deep characters
slowly scrolling by, cheesy feeling keyboard, etc. I know keyboards are
very subjective, but 6x8x1 vs 10x14x2 characters should be obvious to all.

	Also, all the MAC software I have been exposed to has what I
call the brick-wall effect. By this I mean that the "learning curve"
starts really shallow to lead you down the path, then as soon as you need
to do something just a little out of the way (e.g. add a word which is a
proper name but also an English word to the hyphenation dictionary) it's
Hello customer service. (you _did_ buy the extended warranty didn't you?)

	Yes, I would like a "easy to use" machine that also was easy
to program and customize and relatively bug free. From my experience
the MAC (let's not even discuss IBM PCs) is not it. If I have to make
a choice of "mice & windows" vs "programable & reliable", I'll take the
latter. If the hypothetical student would _understanding the tradeoff_
choose the latter, we should all pray he/she doesn't end up programming
for SDI or MasterCard

> 
> The absurdity of have a more useable, more likeable, more productive
                                ???           maybe          for some things
> computer at home compared to the provided computers at school or at work will
> lead to dissatisfaction and frustration.  The first solution will be using
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
   The same frustration I'm supposed to feel when I can't put 8 people in the
cab of my pickup or haul construction debris in my station wagon?

Perhaps computer science _is_ irrelevant to "the real world". Certainly a
cursory examination of "Inside Macintosh" or the MSDOS reference manuals
shows that the developers of both systems considered all sorts of research
into robust systems, extensibility, error recovery, etc. to be "irrelevant"
to their "advanced" systems.

Disclaimer: My first computer was an IBM 1440.

Caveat:	The 1440 was _not_ the last, best, worst, cheapest, most expensive,
         or anything else, just the first.

Summary: Some people use computers for more than fancy party announcements.

2nd disclaimer: Maybe I'm just in a bad mood today. Maybe it has to do with
	having to meet a deadline using a MAC. Maybe not.

| Mike Albaugh (albaugh@dms.UUCP || {decwrl!turtlevax!}weitek!dms!albaugh)
| Atari Games Corp (Arcade Games, no relation to the makers of the ST)
| 675 Sycamore Dr. Milpitas, CA 95035		voice: (408)434-1709
| The opinions expressed are my own (Boy, are they ever)