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From: acm@grendal.Sun.COM (Andrew MacRae)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Now that the smoke had cleared (Honest Mac/IBM questions)
Message-ID: <129727@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 29 Dec 89 20:17:24 GMT
References: <1284@marlin.NOSC.MIL> <970@v7fs1.UUCP>
Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM
Reply-To: acm@sun.UUCP (Andrew MacRae)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 27

In article <970@v7fs1.UUCP> mvp@v7fs1.UUCP (Mike Van Pelt) writes:
>In article <1284@marlin.NOSC.MIL> jbjones@marlin.nosc.mil.UUCP (John B. Jones) writes:
>>All this Mac/IBM blood-letting reminds me of a couple of questions I had
>>about the Mac interface.  With a mac, how do you
>
>>1. Activate something out of sight (in a sub-folder).
>>2. Copy something out of sight to the current or another directory.
>>3. Redirect the output from one program to another as input; example:
>>      prompt>awk -f fil.awk this | awk -f fix.awk >> that
>>4. Write batch files(i.e. is there any highlevel, simple programming
>>   feature in the Mac OS?)
>
>I don't think you can do *any* of these things on the Mac.  At least,
>I've never found one, and the MacExperts I ask tend to respond along
>the lines of "Why on earth would you ever want to ..." with the
>implication that there's something intrinsigly Evil about desiring
>Things That Users Are Not Supposed To Do.  I suspect that the fact that
>you ask about them is a pretty good indication that you'll find the Mac
>OS to be as frustrating and confining a strait-jacket as I do.
>


You sound like the Scottish farmer asking the city dweller how many 
bales of hay his Jaguar can carry, then not understanding why anyone
would want a vehicle that can't carry hay.  The basic paradigms (don't
you love that word?) of the two operating systems are so different
it simply doesn't make sense to ask the questions you are asking.