From: johnsd2@rs6219.ecs.rpi.edu (Daniel Norman Johnson)
Subject: Re: Why Macs are better (and the others aren't)
Reply-To: johnsd2@rpi.edu
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY.
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 05:10:53 GMT

In article <TOMSTER.92Sep28193509@bigwpi.WPI.EDU>, tomster@bigwpi.WPI.EDU (Thomas Richard Dibble) writes:
|> In article <0_hzlck@rpi.edu> johnsd2@jec325.its.rpi.edu (Daniel Norman Johnson) writes:

[deletia- MS UI stuff]

|>    If you are saying the MS SHOULD make the Windows and MacOS versions
|>    as close as possible, I disagree. This is annoying to people who
|>    are using them and other apps on one machine. Id rather have it annoy
|>    people who use just the one app, but do so on various machines.
|> 
|> I think the idea that Microsoft was working on was that a good number of
|> people DO work 'across platforms'.  Either they have one system at work
|> (a Mac, DOS, NeXT, Sun, or Wimpdows) and a different one at home, or
|> they share files (which, btw, I must thank Apple for making possible via
|> SuperDrive) between differring systems.  Gee, wouldn't it be nice if, instead
|> of learning two differents programs which just happen to have the same
|> name, I could just learn one and be done with it?  Isn't that the main
|> selling point of a Mac anyways (that applications are intuitive, ie, easy
|> to learn once you've learned one)?

Yeah, but the Mac and Windows are VERY similar, in a lot of ways.
Granted, following all the interface guidelines would requires a complete
rewrite of MS programs (just the get the modelessness in there); but it
could still cover most of the bases and remain virtually identical between
platforms. (for instance, how many users will be bothed if Excel
windows, when in the background, have the "empty scroll bars" that
the finder, and other UI-cool programs use? Is this so much to ask?

|> Granted, MS, I'm sure, has overstepped the bounds of necessity here (as
|> they often have).  But they started out with a pretty good idea, one
|> which solved a problem which had been nagging users since the home
|> computer came out.  Also, not to forget, it gave them a good share
|> of the market, which is about all MS cares about anyways.

Granted. :)

|>    In any case, they are very similar anyway, so I doubt it would be
|>    much of a problem.
|> 
|> I don't know.  The differences between Windows and System 7.0 are far more
|> than face-deep.

That's true, but we are talking about the faces here. I dont care
how different they are inside; if you can't see it, who cares?

|> The place where they are definitely NOT similar is the programming area.
|> Both environments are openly inhospitable, and porting from one to the other
|> (I have been told) is more than slightly tedious.

:) They are quite different, but not completely so. They are more
similar than different, IMHO. But there are a vast number of little
differences, and quite a lot of big ones too, that need to be taken
care of.

[deletia- paper stuff]

[deletia- about rebuilding the desktop (its obscure) ]
|> 
|>    That's cuz he didn't say how to do it. It isn't obvious.
|>    what you do is hold down the command and option keys while
|>    the hard drive (or whatever) is being mounted. It then throws up
|>    a dialog asking if you want to rebuild its desktop.. click okay
|>    and its off.
|> 
|> I have to give Apple credit here, though.  Of course it isn't obvious
|> how to fix that; it doesn't happen every day!  (at least ... I *hope* it
|> doesn't...)  Therefore, having a message coming up every time you
|> boot up asking if you want to reconstruct the database would be unnecessary
|> and stupid.  It SHOULD, however, be able to sense (when it looks for an
|> application and can't find it, or whatever) that something has gone wrong,
|> and at least point you in the right direction.

It doens't happen every day. I wont giev apple to much credit here; this
is completely invisible. There is NO way to tell that command+option do that.
It would have been better to write a little program u can double click
to do it. Or something like that.

[deltia- critisizm of File Manager associations, to which I have nothing to add]
|> 
|>    Such as? [assuming nothing is corrupted.. I doubt windows would work
|>    too well if it was corrupted, either...]
|> 
|> This is true.  But I wonder how often *that* happens.  Any info, anyone?

The Desktop is rarely corrupted (or incomplete); with me it happpens
when I create a new program (with new icons, etc) or unstuff with an old
stuffit (that I no longer use); In both caes the changes don't "take"
unless you rebuild (or use some utility to do it);

[deletia- Font as icons in the Finder, Apple Menu stuffs. Extensions too]

-- 
			- Dan Johnson
And God said "Jeeze, this is dull"... and it *WAS* dull. Genesis 0:0

These opinions have had all identifiying marks removed, and are untraceable.
You'll never know whose they are.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.advocacy