From: johnsd2@jec330.its.rpi.edu.its1 (Daniel Norman Johnson)
Subject: Re: Mac multitasking?
Reply-To: johnsd2@jec330.its.rpi.edu.its1
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 04:31:26 GMT

In article 2257@athena.mit.edu, zmonster@athena.mit.edu (Eric M Hermanson) writes:
>>>In article <m7h2!gd@rpi.edu> johnsd2@jec326.its.rpi.edu.its1 writes:
>>>>In article 2243@athena.mit.edu, zmonster@athena.mit.edu (Eric M Hermanson) writes:
>>
>>>In my opinion, anyone who invests in a Macintosh at this juncture is making
>>>a big mistake, given the move towards object orientation.  NeXT offers this
>>>technlogy now.  Taligent HOPES to offer it over a year from now.  
>>
>>Macs offer you solutions, now. To a lot of problems. NeXT may do so one
>>day, if they ever get accepted.
>>
>>But NeXT offer you a very nifty, internally clean os. It is just not enough,
>>tho.
>
>NeXT offers solutions just as well as Mac does.

Oh?

>  There are currently more than
>325 commercial software packages available for NeXT.  I know that is not near
>the 3000 number that Mac has, but in all reality, NO ONE is going to buy
>3000 programs and install them on their hard drive.

Of course not. But it had better have the things you want to use.
(Im a bit interested in what video games the NeXT has myself, not that
that's horribly important)

>  NeXT offers solutions
>to a wide range of fields:  Word Processing, Graphics, Photo Retouching,
>CAD (2D&3D), Spreadsheets, Plotting packages, Presentation Software,
>Page Layout, DataBase, MIDI, Music Editing, Sound Mixing, Signal Processing,
>etc.  If I have left anything out, it is because I couldn't think of it.
>Where Mac has 10 programs in a specific field, NeXT only has three or four
>at most, but the fact is that those three or four packages are most likely
>superior in their speed and versatility than the 10 Mac programs.

Hmm, if you have 3 or 4 progs for every 10 mac progs, you'd have about
1500 progs, and I'd not complain as much. To assert that NeXT programs
are better than Mac programs is odd. Can you demonstrate this?

Do these programs include the programs that people get for compatibility
(rather a silly reason, but sometimes very importanant) You know, the
standard stuff?

It would help establish the NeXT if it did.

Incidentally, what CAD software has it got? Byte was not able to find any
for its (rather odd) CAD/DTP tests. a couple of months ago.

>  I am trying
>to get rid of the stigma that NeXT has no software available for it.. There
>is plenty of software at very good prices (educational users always get
>discounts).  If you don't believe me, call 1-800-848-NeXT and tell them
>you want the software and peripherals guide.

I know it has software. It just has relatively little, and many of
the packages are nonstandard. They may be excellent but often mere
nonstandardness can kill a package. (unforunately); for many
companies need to stick with their standard stuff for interconnectivity
reasons. (or at least, that's the best excuse I've heard yet. :) )

And it also gives you a very nifty GUI on top of a slightly-
incompatible (From what I've heard anyway) Unix base. But the GUI
isn't all that nifty- it has some nice details, and some nice
internals, and better program-communication that other OSes but
beyond that.. ?

It doesn't quite seem like enough to me to counterbalance the software
problem, the lack of low-end machines, the general jerkyness of the
interface (perhaps the machines Ive tried have all had low RAM, but
they all seemed that jerky to me), the prodigious storage space
requirents and all that.

>>
>>>Does the fact that you are with Sun Microsystems have anything to do with
>>>your opinions?  Is Sun feeling the heat over there, just a little bit Dan?
>>
>>I am not with Sun Microsystems.
>>
>>I am a student an Rensselear Polytechnic Institute, as you can tell easily
>>enough from my address. My newsreader like to put the sun line in my
>>posts anyway. Pretty silly.
>
>I apologise.

It's alright.

>>>>
>>>>>In article <-ch2rl_@rpi.edu> johnsd2@lib104.its.rpi.edu.its1 writes:
>>>>>>>Eric Hermanson Writes:
>>>  It is pretty simple.  With Display
>>>postcript, if something on the screen (a tangent say) touches something else
>>>on the screen (a circle say) then they will absollutely touch when printed
>>>out.
>>
>>
>>But it is easy to be inexact about it when you are using a mouse.
>>
>>>  The screen resolution is LOWER than the printer's resolution.  The 
>>>printer merely adds more "pixels" to the picture, it does not alter the
>>>picture.
>>
>>Umm, adding more pixels does change the picture. Adds more detail in this
>>case. Perhaps enought detail to see a gap between the lines. Perhaps
>>
>>Like I said, what about the case where the lines are separated by 1/2
>>a pixel- something small enough to get lost at low screen resolutions.
>>This happens on the Mac, as you know. When you zoom in (or print) you can
>>see it.
>>
>>			- Dan Johnson
>
>Ugh!  Dan, you are missing my point, and I guess it is my fault, I can't
>express myself very well.  If you draw something on the screen, and you
>have display postscript, you can't have something separated by 0.5 pixel
>because when you draw it the poscript interpreter knows what the resolution
>of the screen is (92dpi for NeXT) and it makes sure that what you see
>is what you get.  I JUST tried my example again.  I drew a circle, then drew
>a tangent to the circle without zooming in.  Then I zoomed in to 400% (which
>gives me the "same" resolution as the NeXT 400dpi laser printer), and the
>line was still tangent to the circle, but everything looked smoother since
>I had more resolution.  Then I printed it out, tangent was perfect.  On a Mac
>without display postcript, I can never get this to work.  I always have to 
>draw the cirlce and tangent, print it out, and check to see if they look 
>tangent when printed. If they are not tangent, I have to fiddle with the line
>until they are tangent.  On the NeXT, I KNOW that if they are tangent on the
>screen then they will be tangent when printed out.  Please try it yourself!
>You will see what I mean.  I know there are NeXT's over there at RPI somewhere!

There are NeXTs but they don't have this sort of software on them.

Might I ask what software you are using on each system?

Anyway, I dont quite see how the NeXT can stop you from having lines
separated by 1/2 screen pixel. The sort of problems I have on the Mac
this way are just placing the line in the wrong place (slightly),
and the Mac so dipicts it (if you zoom in or the resolution is high
enough it does anyway); The NeXT somehow does not do so?

(actually, to be precise the line is out of place because it is too
long, basically- for some reason MacDraw like having its lines
protrude by the pen size... But that is often less than a pixel too
far. That sort of thing can happen in other contexts too, of course.)

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

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