Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bat.cis.ohio-state.edu!gaynor From: gaynor@bat.cis.ohio-state.edu (Vampire) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Something else you can't do on the Mac Message-ID: <75208@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Date: 1 Jan 90 22:34:14 GMT References: <1284@marlin.NOSC.MIL> <970@v7fs1.UUCP> <129727@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> <2702@aecom.yu.edu> Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Reply-To: Vampire Organization: Ohio State University Computer and Information Science Lines: 52 In article <2702@aecom.yu.edu> werner@aecom.yu.edu (Craig Werner) writes: > I do this a lot. > Download a text file. Now try to display it. On a PC, use type. >On a Mac, you can't. > A downloaded text file has no associated application. If you >double click it, it gives you an error message. I agree that this is somewhat of a pain. I usually keep one of the many shareware text editors (NotePad+, MockWrite, etc.) as a desk accessory in my System file (or with Suitcase II). But it'd be nice if Apple gave users such a basic text editor with the system, and cobbled the system such that any file of type TEXT for which there is no application gets opened by this "default" text editor. > Now you can see the file. In Multi-finder this is especially >trivial. You keep a copy of your favorite word processor around, in >background, and: > 1. Switch to the word-processor. > 2. Go to the file menu, choose open > 3. Select the file. (Now at this point, you have to remember what >it was actually called, not just where it was on the desktop.) > 4. You're there, that is in most cases. I find that a lot of >text files are tabbed, and our word processor's default is Times-Roman, >so: > 4a. Select the entire text > 5. Go to the font menu, and select Courier. This usually causes >wrapping of some sort, so > 5a. Lower the point size. > 6. Now, you're there. > Yet another reason to hate the Mac. Actually, I find this another reason to hate IBMs, and the users who have no concept of proportional fonts. I can't count the number of times that I've downloaded a file to find that the person who wrote it used spaces rather than tabs to line things up, or hit a at the end of each -line- rather than at the end of each paragraph. At least, if you're going to use s to designate an eol, then use 2 s for end-of-paragraph. DISCLAIMER: I don't think that just one computer can solve all a user's woes. There are things that each of the "mainstream" computers does better than its competitors, and things that each does worse. I just find, that for me, the Mac does more of what -I- want to do, and does it that way I want it done. -=- | Jim Gaynor..."The Vampire Lestat" UseNet: gaynor@cis.ohio-state.edu | | The Ohio State University - Instructional and Research Computer Center | >> "Could I interest you, sir, in dominion over half the world?" << >> -Nigel Frobisher, Excalibur #15 <<