Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!wuarchive!udel!udccvax1!sun.acs.udel.edu!weave
From: weave@sun.acs.udel.edu (Ken Weaverling)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: How to improve the Mac (was Re: Text file madness on the Mac.)
Summary: The Macintosh *does* have a lot of room for improvement
Message-ID: <6472@sun.acs.udel.edu>
Date: 7 Jan 90 00:05:28 GMT
References: <2706@aecom.yu.edu> <5900@ncar.ucar.edu> <1998@eric.mpr.ca> <5915@ncar.ucar.edu> <8315@cbnewsm.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: weave@sun.acs.udel.edu (Ken Weaverling)
Distribution: na
Organization: University of Delaware
Lines: 82

OK, this is getting ridiculous. Mr. Siemon *does* have a point, he knows 
it, and nothing is going to change this. "TYPEing" a text file would take
all of a 100 bytes or so of code to add to the Mac OS, but would blow its
predictability. For example, if the Finder would add many "browser" modes
to be used if the app wasn't found would cause confusion. 

Imagine a user: "I've seen the text, now I want to edit it, what do 
you mean I can't?

Before I get into a useful discussion, we could "tit-for-tat" and I could
scream about the multiple times I've accidently inserted an unformatted 
disk into a DOS machine and get "Read error, Abort, Fail, Retry" kind of
error (real descriptive), and then have to hunt around for a DOS disk with
FORMAT.COM on it, find one, and then have it say "Incorrect DOS version."


OK, what does the Mac need? Let's have a useful discussion and maybe, just
maybe, someone from Apple will say "Gee, neat idea" and implement it.

1) A command line window. Forget religous grounds against doing 
this. It'd be useful in A LOT OF cases.

2) A job language. PC users shouldn't scoff too much here, BATCH is
horrible. Apparently Apple is working on some sort of Hypercard like
language for system level stuff. Let's hope so. I should be able to 
have my Mac kick in Word at 03:00 and send that large file to the 
laserwriter without a hassle, or kick in a program to copy my Hard
Drive to a server at 02:00, just before the server backs up to tape
at 04:00.

3) Mail. For pete's sake, this should be an OS program. Forget Quick
Mail, Microsoft Mail, etc. Make it standard and include it with the Mac's
OS so everyone has it. That's the only way Email will be on everyone's
desk. And gee, it'd be nice if it'd talk to other mail programs under
other OS'es...

4) Drop the law suits about the User Interface. Remember what happened
to Betamax? Now Sony is selling VHS. Will Apple be selling PC compatibles?

5) Forget forcing Multi-Finder in OS 7.0. I teach at a College part time 
and it's a major feat to teach people to do ONE thing at a time. Trying
to explain to someone that "Program A is active, but not showing any 
windows, so it only "looks" like Program B is in the foreground" kind of
crap is really difficult.

As for MS/DOS, it's a relic. Every watch someone TYPE a spreadsheet? 

The file creator/type attributes on the Mac are great. It specifies what
the file contains, and what program created it. It doesn't prohibit other
applications from reading it. The closest thing DOS has is the file
extension *.WK1 for instance. 
 
I administer systems running 3 different OSes (Unix, Primos, DOS), I
use the Macintosh cause I prefer it, and I sometime dabble in CANDE
on a UNISYS A series when someone points a gun at my head. 
 
Each OS has it's advantages and disadvantages. I do "serious" work
on the Mac (documentation, spreadsheets, graphics, planning) cause I
prefer to concentrate on my work, not on the blasted computer. I don't
really *care* to be a PC power user, I just want to do my work.

I use UNIX cause it has it all.

I use DOS cause I have to. I need to administrate a few DOS lans. 
Thankfully, I have PC-Interface that turns my UNIX boxes into DOS file
servers and I can actually call UNIX programs and scripts from my DOS
batch files so I can get something useful out of the PCs. 

Primos on the Prime is fairly bullet-proof. I can basically forget it's
there. It runs day/in day/out, has never crashed in the two 1/2 years 
we've had it, and it's simple to administrate and keep running. (Thank God)

So, in summary, forget the silly flames and wars, and let's discuss how
to improve Macs based on our collective knowledge of other systems and 
what we'd like to see, and not flame someone when s/he points out an
area that needs to be addressed and not gloat when "Sys A beats Sys B 
cause it can munge this into that better..."

-- 

Ken Weaverling - Systems Administrator |  Internet: 00499@vax1.acs.udel.edu
Delaware Technical & Community College |  Voice:    +1 302 573 5460