Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ukma!rutgers!bellcore!tness7!texbell!sugar!peter From: peter@sugar.uu.net (Peter da Silva) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: CRETIN MANOR MAIL Message-ID: <2821@sugar.uu.net> Date: 15 Oct 88 01:16:52 GMT References: <7699@gryphon.CTS.COM> <3220@hubcap.UUCP> <7369@well.UUCP> Organization: Sugar Land Unix - Houston, TX Lines: 80 Leo, this is probably the nicest critical article I could possibly write. I'm trying to be constructive. I'm not flaming you. I'm not flaming Jerry. Please don't ignore it. Everyone else, if you think I'm being too kind (and by some of the articles out there I'm sure many do) don't try to hammer this in. I'm trying in my own bumbling way to be polite, literate, and diplomatic. I think it's reasonably important. In article <7369@well.UUCP>, ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) writes: > Look, Jerry's just this guy, you know? By a quirk of fate, he > happen to start writing a column in BYTE magazine about his experiences with > computers, and that irritates a lot of us because we "know" he's not > qualified to write about computers. The problem is that his column is sitting under this banner marked "expert advice". It's the *first* column in this "expert advice" section, which tells everyone that he's Byte's first expert. Yes, I know Byte doesn't mean it that way, but that's the situation it's in. Also, Jerry is willing to put up with indignities from his CP/M and MS-DOS based systems I wouldn't sit still for. He has achieved some moderate competence. He's a power user. And he's an expert. We know better, but that's the pulpit he's found himself in. Now, if this power user can't handle the Amiga, if this expert can't deal with it, then the Amiga must be really really hard to use. Harder than the IBM-PCs that his readers struggle with. If just once he would come out and say something like "IBM-PCs are really very poorly designed and unreasonable hard to use. If I hadn't cut my teeth on CP/M machines, which are even more poorly designed and hard to use, and had the aid of some very patient and effective teachers, then I'd never be able to cope with them the way I can. These other machines, the Macintosh, the Amiga, and the Atari ST, are much easier to use because they don't require that you learn arcane commands to use them. They have better designed operating systems because they're younger. They're not perfect, and each have certain strengths and weaknesses. "I have gained a certain amount of understanding into how the IBM-PC works. I'm not going to go through anything like that again, so don't expect me to spend the time learning another machine to the same sort of depth. "I'll push the IBM-PC because it's what I know. I'll push the Mac because it's the machine that requires the least effort to get started in. But take my opinions on anything else with a grain of salt." That's basically the position he's in. It'd only be fair to his readers to let them know this. But apart from an occasional claim that he's a complete neophyte (which is just as untrue as his claiming to be an expert) he doesn't even try. > when a piece of software breaks, we say, "Oh, well obviously the programmer > called FreeMem() on a NULL pointer." You do. I don't. I just say "that program has a bug" and I don't use it again. I might post a message to that effect on the net, and tell people at work to stay away from that particular program. I don't blame the operating system. Neither does Jerry when the IBM-PC is involved. Because he's invested so much time and money (yes, money. I don't think he gets *all* his hardware given to him) in it. He could at least give others the same courtesy. > Jerry does not like the Amiga. He is not obligated to like it. > Just because he got a free 2000DK and has Joanne come running to his rescue > every time he has a problem does not obligate him to say nice things, nor > does it obligate him to keep silent if he doesn't like it. He is obligated to either say nothing about it, or to give his readers some insight into his reasons. He has, let us say, a little power. He therefore has a little responsibility. Either explain to his readers where he's coming from or restrict his column to his areas of competance. I really don't see how that's so hard. -- Peter da Silva `-_-' peter@sugar.uu.net Have you hugged U your wolf today?