Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!caesar.cs.montana.edu!ogicse!littlei!leonardo.intel.com!davidl
From: davidl@leonardo.intel.com (David D. Levine)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: System 7 question
Message-ID: <769@gandalf.littlei.UUCP>
Date: 3 Jan 90 00:56:10 GMT
References: <141200088@cdp> <780093@hpvcfs1.hp.com>
Sender: news@littlei.UUCP
Organization: Intel IMSO Tech Pubs
Lines: 47

> >... For example,
> >how would you do this under macOS (send a list of all files under current
> >directory to the spooled printer)?
> >
> >  find . -print | lp
> 
> Printing files and directories is VERY EASY on the mac.
> 
>       Choose "Print Directory" from the File menu.

This is one of several responses that misses the point of the original
question.  The tricky part here is the "find . -print", which recursively
descends the directory hierarchy beginning at the current directory; it
lists all files in the current directory AND IN ALL SUBDIRECTORIES and
sub-subdirectories and...

I don't believe that there is any way to do this on the Mac.  I also don't
think there's any way to do it on the PC (unless you use a UNIX emulator
that includes "find" or some third-party product with equivalent
functionality).

Another query in the original article was: how do you do the equivalent of
"rm *.bak"?  The response was to do a View By Type, select a block of
files, and drag them to the trash, which led to a tangent about how to
select a block of files in View By Type mode.  However, this response also
missed the point of the original question; backup files (.bak) would
presumably have the same types as the files they back up.  For example, if
you had a bunch of MacWrite files called foo, foo.bak, bar, bar.bak, baz,
baz.bak, etc., there is no easy way to select all the .bak files and delete
them.  (Another response claimed that selecting files by filename patterns
will be in System 7.0.  We'll see.)

My response to these points is that, yes, there are tasks that the Mac's
point-and-click interface does not lend itself to.  Selecting files according 
to their names (rm *.bak) is one of them.  However, I maintain that if 
you are using filename extensions to differentiate your files, you
are not using your Mac properly.  I group related files physically in one
part of the directory window, and can easily select them all with a sweep 
of the mouse.  On a color Mac, you can also differentiate files with colored 
icons (and use View By Color to group them).  

Use your tools in a sensible way.  Don't drive screws with a hammer: it
works, but not well.

- David D. Levine, Intel IMSO Tech Pubs
  davidl@leonardo.intel.com
  "Inconceivable!"  "I don't think that word means what you think it means."