From: gad@eclipse.its.rpi.edu (Garance A. Drosehn)
Subject: Re: NeXT vs Mac (Again) was "Need to convin
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 01:22:47 GMT

johnsd2@lib102.its.rpi.edu.its1 (Daniel Norman Johnson) writes:
> (gad this thread is huge)

Hey, don't blame me!!!
     (note my initials, for the pun-impared :-)

> wrob@unixg.ubc.ca (Robert Wong) writes:
> >How about Display Postscript level 2 (PS level 2) to make your NeXT laser 
> >printer automatically PS 2?  (I don't think upgrading system software on
> >a Mac will up the PS level on a Laserwriter NT/NTX)
> 
> I don't think it will do this on the NeXT; it will make the computer
> IMAGE with PS level 2. But what if you are using a "real" postscript
> printer.. does it help then?

Um, depends on your definition of "real".  If you are going to a NeXT laser  
printer, which is not an Apple laserwriter of course, then it will most  
certainly print Postscript level 2.  That's one of the advantages of doing  
the imaging on the machine as opposed to in a separate printer.  Both the  
screen and the printer do exactly the same thing this way.

Of course, if you define "real" as being "you must print it on hardware  
which does not support Postscript level 2, such as an (older) Apple  
laserwriter", then clearly you are correct.  The NeXT has to fall back to  
postscript level 1 when printing to a printer which is stuck at level 1 of  
Postscript.  This shouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone.

Oddly enough, many NeXT users buy NeXT printers, and thus they can print  
Postscript level 2 documents once they upgrade to NS3.0.

> >How about Appletalk client and Novell client support?
> 
> Appletalk client isn't so hard for a Mac. Novell can be got 3d party,
> tho it is pricey.

More important point to make here (for those arguing the Mac side) is that  
the Appletalk support in NS3.0 is a bit on the buggy side, *particularly* if  
your network is not all Phase 2.  One hopes (for those arguing the NeXT  
side) that all these problems will be addressed in NeXTSTEP 3.1.  People who  
have all Phase 2 networks seem to be happy with the NS3.0 version of  
Appletalk support, but I'd have to admit that it's been extremely unreliable  
for me in the RPI environment (which is mostly phase 1, but in the process  
of being converted to phase 2).

> > How about localization support for
> > Eng/French/German/Span./Italian/Swedish?
> > (I think you guys got that in System 7.0 or 7.1)
> 
> We had that in system ->1.0<-;
> 
> No kidding.
> 
> System 5ish provided support for non-roman alphabets,  and system 7
> does things like context sensitive typefaces, reverse writing etc.
> I believe 7.1 can do mixed script systems and several other neat tricks,
> but I'm not very knowledgable about it.

I've seen this claim presented before, and I think it sidesteps the real  
point.  The Mac system did *not* support multiple languages before system  
7.1.  What it did was have different systems geared to different languages.   
This is not the same thing.

Before you explain resources to me, as if I am ignorant of the Mac world,  
consider this.  If you installed the German version of system 6.08 on your  
Mac, you would indeed have german support.  Now let's say I want to use your  
Mac, and I want to see everything in spanish.  What did I have to do?  I had  
to install a new system, the Spanish system.  Thus, the *system* did not  
support multiple languages.  Thus I have CD-ROM's from Apple which have a  
few dozen different systems on it, and the user decides which *system* they  
wanted to install.

Both NeXTSTEP 3.0 and WorldScript Mac System 7.1 support multiple languages,  
in the sense that it can be a user preference instead of being a decision  
which is made only at installation time.

--
Garance Alistair Drosehn     =     gad@eclipse.its.rpi.edu
ITS Systems Programmer            (handles NeXT-type mail)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute;           Troy NY    USA

(note: I do both Mac and NeXT stuff.
       I own a Mac and will soon own a NeXT.
       I find most of these Mac vs. NeXT threads pretty dumb, because
              I myself like both systems).
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.advocacy