Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!udel!burdvax!dave From: dave@PRC.Unisys.COM (David Lee Matuszek) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: Text file madness: diagnosis & prescription. Message-ID: <12501@burdvax.PRC.Unisys.COM> Date: 12 Jan 90 18:57:47 GMT References: <2706@aecom.yu.edu> <5900@ncar.ucar.edu> <1998@eric.mpr.ca> <1990Jan7.172731.12580@NCoast.ORG> <8454@cbnewsm.ATT.COM> Sender: news@PRC.Unisys.COM Distribution: na Organization: Unisys Corporation, Paoli Research Center; Paoli, PA Lines: 85 In article <8454@cbnewsm.ATT.COM> mls@cbnewsm.ATT.COM (mike.siemon) writes: > >This is a bit obscure. If I try to select, e.g., the file generated by my >scanner software *and* a word processor, I find that the Finder doesn't *let* >me extend selections across different folders. (surely you *don't* mean for >me to keep everything in the *same* folder? :-)) That's the way it works. It made a lot more sense back when I bought my 128K Mac; back then MFS had folders, but they were just an organizational convenience, not really used by the operating system. When HFS (and reasonably-priced hard disks) came along, folders were used to implement the directory hierarchy. It seems to me that this feature still exists primarily for compatibility reasons. [BTW, I never found it particularly useful anyway.] >I can of course drag one of these to the *other's* folder, or both onto the >desktop (and then must remember to drag them back where I really want them >:-)) Now if I click and shift click (or whatever) to select them both, a >double click may launch the application *with* the file I want (at least, >Word did this for me; I really don't know if this is general or not. One >*never* knows whether something on the Mac is general or not.) You never know what's general on *any* computer, but I think the Mac is a great deal more consistent than most. For example, I use Unix at work; for some commands that I don't use every day, there are parameters that may or may not require a '-' prefix (e.g. the history command). > Thus, I do >not need the File menu's Open line -- at least in this case. I was unaware >of the possibility until you mentioned it; are you suggesting this is known >to ordinary Mac users? Well, I don't know about you new kids on the block, but us old-timers all know about it.... > It is not mentioned in Apple documentation that I >have read. It's fully described in my docmentation. Of course, it's been several years since I got updated docs, even longer since I looked at the docs I do have. > (And what then; must >I write my own documentation to record these experimental findings?) The "Macintosh Bible" is a great book; I highly recommend it. It makes up for a lot of failures in the official documentation (which was clearly written for "the rest of them"). [I've never met a computer that comes with really good documentation; unfortunately, this includes the Mac.] > for all I know Word may have buried arithmetic capabilites, too -- >possibly hanging off the KitchenSink menu.) I don't know about Word 3.x, but yes, Word 4.0 does have arithmetic capabilites. I forget which menu, as usual. But please don't judge the Mac by MS Word. MS Word is widely regarded as one of the most "un-Mac-like" programs around, despite the fact that it's the most widely used word processor. > The idea >of *all* files being byte sequences, connected via stdin/stdout pipes in a >*general* combinator, has all the power that algebra does in mathematics. Yes, this is a great idea. But the Macintosh has some pretty good ideas, too. The idea of "resources" is pretty darned useful. Less important, but more visible, I like the fact that files have types, so that I don't have to keep track of this myself (and no, filename extensions aren't in the same class). > >The Mac draws beautiful Roman numerals; one is almost seduced into thinking >that the art of reckoning with these numerals is all there is to mathematics. > Does anyone out there have a Roman numeral Desk Calculator DA? Sounds like a fun thing to have. -- Dave Matuszek (dave@prc.unisys.com) -- Unisys Corp. / Paoli Research Center / PO Box 517 / Paoli PA 19301 -- Any resemblance between my opinions and those of my employer is improbable. << Those who fail to learn from Unix are doomed to repeat it. >>