Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc:40981 comp.sys.mac:45300
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!aecom!werner
From: werner@aecom.yu.edu (Craig Werner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Now that the smoke had cleared (Honest Mac/IBM questions)
Summary: summarizing why I REALLY hate the Mac the more I use it.
Message-ID: <2701@aecom.yu.edu>
Date: 1 Jan 90 20:29:25 GMT
References: <1284@marlin.NOSC.MIL>
Followup-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Organization: Albert Einstein Coll. of Med., NY
Lines: 49

In article <1284@marlin.NOSC.MIL>, jbjones@marlin.NOSC.MIL (John B. Jones) writes:
> about the Mac interface.  With a mac, how do you
> 
> 1. Activate something out of sight (in a sub-folder).
	Double clicking an object activates its application.  I have a
lot of dummy files strewn in sub-folders to accomplish this purpose.
Another way is to double-click an existing real file, and then close it
and continue.  It's clumsy, but intuitive (more the former).

> 2. Copy something out of sight to the current or another directory.
	You don't. Even worse, if you're in a subdirectory, sorry -
folder, and you switch to another drive, and switch back, it returns you
to root, not from where you started.

> 3. Redirect the output from one program to another as input; example:
> 	prompt>awk -f fil.awk this | awk -f fix.awk >> that
	The clipboard.  This is painful. Yeachhhhh.....
	In fact most applications don't think in terms of input and
output, they think in terms of "events," some of which might come from
the keyboard...

> 4. Write batch files(i.e. is there any highlevel, simple programming
>    feature in the Mac OS?)
	There is MacroMaker in system 6. Before that you had to go out and
buy something (and there are several packages available.)  But note that
MacroMaker doesn't remember what you clicked, only WHERE you clicked, so
if someone else uses the Mac and moves an Icon or window, OR you start up
the application in a non-standard way so the desktop is different, the
macro fails and cannot be edited. You either have to restore the former
state, or rerun it through.  ALso, macros don't run in background. You
see everything (there's no echo off). And if applications are opened in
the macro, the macro might outrace the Mac, and try to click a menu
before the menus have actually changed.  In this case, the macro
mysteriously fails (this is why I try to use keyboard commands in macros
as much as possible, but not all Mac commands in most applications can be
shadowed by the keyboard.) Also, as far as I can tell, you can't transfer
these macros as you would a batch file.
	In other words, if you need a yes or no answer, the sane answer
would probably be "No." It's closer to "not really," or "not as you know
them."  There is a common one line batch file that I use on Unix.  On the
Mac, it takes almost a minute, and 17 mouse clicks, all of which time the
Mac is frozen (although the "dancing" screen displays impress onlookers.

	If you hadn't noticed. I hate the Mac. I use it under protest.
-- 
	        Craig Werner   (future MD/PhD, 4.5 years down, 2.5 to go)
	     werner@aecom.YU.EDU -- Albert Einstein College of Medicine
              (1935-14E Eastchester Rd., Bronx NY 10461, 212-931-2517)
                 "Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died."