Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!ames!vsi1!v7fs1!mvp
From: mvp@v7fs1.UUCP (Mike Van Pelt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Now that the smoke had cleared (Honest Mac/IBM questions)
Message-ID: <973@v7fs1.UUCP>
Date: 29 Dec 89 22:32:06 GMT
References: <1284@marlin.NOSC.MIL> <970@v7fs1.UUCP> <129727@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Reply-To: mvp@v7fs1.UUCP (Mike Van Pelt)
Organization: Video 7 + G2 = Headland Technology
Lines: 43

>>In article <1284@marlin.NOSC.MIL> jbjones@marlin.nosc.mil.UUCP (John B. Jones) writes:
>>> With a mac, how do you
 ...
>>>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?)

In article <970@v7fs1.UUCP> I write:
>>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 ..." 

In article <129727@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> acm@sun.UUCP (Andrew MacRae) writes:
>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.

Exactly.  That is precisely the point of the MacDetractors.  If you
need a vehicle to carry hay (a computer with which to do useful work)
then a two-seat sports car like a Jaguar (a MacInToy with which to
fingerpaint) is not exactly the machine for the job.

The above paragraph is wildly exaggerated, of course; I am by no means
saying that you can't do useful work on the MacIntosh.  For some
applications it remains the best machine for the job.

Still, the lack of items 3 & 4 above are, for me, fatal deficiencies:
You *CAN NOT* use the output of one program as the input to another,
and worse, you *CAN NOT* automate a complex, often-repeated, and/or
long-running sequence of commands.  On MSDOS or Unix, if I need to do
sixteen things that will take an hour, I put 'em all into a batch
file.  While it's running, I can do something else.  On the Mac, I must
sit there glued the the screen, wasting an hour of my valuable time in
boring "pointing and clicking".  That's what I mean by a "frustrating
and confining strait-jacket."
-- 
Mike Van Pelt               "I hate trolls.  Maybe I could metamorph it into
Headland Technology          something else -- like a ravenous, two-headed,
(Was: Video Seven)           fire-breathing dragon."  -- Willow.
...ames!vsi1!v7fs1!mvp