From: cj00+@andrew.cmu.edu (Carl B Jabido)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.advocacy
Subject: Re: 7.1 vs. OS/2 and Windows NT
Date: 3 Oct 92 10:47:57 GMT
Article-I.D.: andrew.IenSfRq00WBM02fGtw
Organization: Sophomore, Math/Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Excerpts from netnews.comp.sys.mac.advocacy: 3-Oct-92 Re: 7.1 vs. OS/2
and Window.. by Ishir Bhan@husc8.harvard 
> >> * Support for the localization of Sorting order, Data and Time formats,
> >>   currency, measurement, calenders and numbers (Not, Not)
>  
> >Umm, what's this?  A control panel?  We have them.  They're all in Settings.
>  
> Not just a control panel.  Something actually to easily change to
> different standards for date, time, etc. (such as using commas in place of
> decimal points).

Yes, we have all of that too.  It's the country settings.  In fact, on
installation, it asks you what country you're in and it'll set that
stuff.  Of course you can go back to the settings and change them later.
  
> >(This is only my opinion:  QuickTime isn't all that great.  I've seen
> >stuff on IIci's with 8 megs of ram, etc. (ie, a higher end setup)  and a
> >quicktime movie was demoed for me.  First, it was a small window, only
> >like 160x160(?), and what really got me was how jumpy it was.  That was
> >weird because there was _nothing_ else in memory.  That was the only
> >app.  Tell me if this is just really bad performance.)
>  
> Strange, because even on my Mac II (16Mhz 68020) I can get smooth images
> that are larger than that.  It could have been the movie that you were
> watching was recorded at a low frame rate, or that it was not optimized
> for the bit depth of the IIci.  QuickTime 1.5 is supposed to be even
> better.  Plus, it's a standard.

True.  It's been said in the trade rags before, but I'll repeat it here.
 Multimedia has become a selling point which shouldn't really affect the
common user (at least right now).  Multimedia is great, but for the most
part, people don't have a real use for it now.  By this, I don't mean
that multimedia sucks and we should get rid of it (ie, quicktime is
worthless).  I mean that titles and such really don't have much
importance right now.  The business side however is becoming more
important (eg, voice annotation, etc) and for this, quicktime does have
some advantages, but it's coming to PCs and we do have voice annotation
and simple multimedia stuff in the multimedia extensions made by
Microsoft.

> >> System 7.1:
> >> * Features to support virtually all known forms of written human
> >communication
> >>   using WorldScript. (Not, Not)
>  
> >Well, I guess I shouldn't say this, but I will.  What's the real
> >importance of this?  Go ahead flame away.
>  
> Well, if you need to write something in Japanese or some other language
> which uses different characters from English, you can do it with System
> 7.1.  You personally may not care, but it's important to anyone who uses
> such languages (and since Japan is such a giant now, this is an important
> issue).

Okay, I can see where this is important.  Score one for Mac (but not for
most of the people in the US).  I think it's a safe assumption that most
of the people using computers in the US would think that thats a really
cool feature, but one that they may never need.

  
> >NO COMMAND LINE!!!
>  
> >Why do I want one?  How do you set a path for running programs in a
> >folder 5 or 6 deep?  You have to dbl-click, dbl-click, etc. . .  Just
> >set a path and type in the command, and you're running it.
>  
> Then you're missing the point of System 7's alias system.  With System 7,
> you won't need to worry where your programs are, because you can have an
> alias of the program as close as you want (even in the Apple Menu).  I
> keep my most frequently used programs (about 15) on my desktop, instantly
> accessable.  I don't need to remember any commands, directory names,
> etc.

Don't forget, we OS/2 people do have aliases!  But they're called
shadows.  Yes I love the alias/shadows setup, and I use them quite alot.
 My only problem is that (and this too has been on the net) I just
checked how many programs/commands are in my path, and it's up to about
300.  Does this mean I have to create a folder called Path, and put 300
objects in it?
  
> >Except I also have a printer object >which you Mac people don't.
>  
> There is a program on the Mac (rather, an init) which lets you do that.  I
> didn't find it particularly useful (just cluttered the desktop) and so
> removed it.

I find it pretty useful (at least in OS/2)  The printer object controls
everything.  For example, you can print things via drag-drop.  The
spooler is controlled by it.  Dbl-click will show an iconic view of
what's in the spooler.(You can also open a detailed view, showing the
time, date, etc)  (This is the coolest-->)Dbl-clicking on the individual
objects in the spooler, and up pops a small graphic image of what it
actually is!
BTW, how did it clutter the desktop?  I have my desktop configured
exactly like a Mac (ie drives in upper right, trash (yeah, I changed to
a trash can, instead of the stock shredder) in the lower right) and I
only have a total of four 4 objects on the desktop.   Not much to get
cluttered.  Except that I'm at 1024x768 which gives me tons of room
compared to 640x480(?). 


One last note, if you want consistency, we have consistency down to the
control panels.  These are now "settings notebooks" because they use the
analog of a notebook.  All settings are set by these notebooks.  I've
noticed that programs which add these settings also use notebooks, so
it's catching on pretty fast.

Carl Jabido
cj00@andrew.cmu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.advocacy