From: johnsd2@rs6219.ecs.rpi.edu (Daniel Norman Johnson)
Subject: Re: 7.1 vs. OS/2 and Windows NT
Reply-To: johnsd2@rpi.edu
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY.
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 21:37:23 GMT

In article <EeoNyDq00WB5J5V6om@andrew.cmu.edu>, Carl B Jabido <cj00+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:

[deletia- about notebooks, subfolders for templates, templates/stationary]
|>   
|> > do teh templates provide a way to name a new file? Like, you drag
|> > the template to the appropriate fodler and a dialog comes up asking for
|> > a name, say? Or do you just rename the created file?
|>   
|> It depends.  Most document templates don't open a dialog.  It comes off
|> called Describe Document or Text Document or whatever, and you just
|> rename the file.  Other templates, especially ones that need to be
|> configured (like printers, program objects, etc) do open a dialog, and
|> in addition to the name, it asks you the other stuff it needs to know.
|> 

I see. I don't like THAT so much, but its a minor diddly little point.

|> > It seems to me that this is basically nice, but templates
|> > add an unnecessary complexity- the app itself could be its
|> > own (basic) template. This would make it obvious that you cant
|> > create a document if you dont have the app for it.
|> 
|> Yeah, you could do that.  Again, it's just a difference of philosophy.

Yeah, and my philosophy is betters that yoooooouurrs! :) [sorry,
I just could not resist. Not on an .advocacy group  <--- nice, standard,
all purpose excuse, ain't it?]

|> > |> > Well, if thats all its not so bad. Sounds like that fodler
|> > |> > could get cluttered.
|> > |> 
|> > |> OS/2 has several ways of organizing folders.  First, there's the way
|> > |> used in Mac and Windows: Just organize them so there's no overlapping
|> > |> icons or whatever.  OS/2 can also let you "flow": which means to let the
|> > |> icons flow down vertically down the folder, so you get a long folder
|> > |> which has a vertical scroll bar, and you just scroll up or down.  It's
|> > |> alphabetical so you can find it easier.  
|> >  
|> > I meant there could be too many files in one folder, so you'd ahve
|> > to much about to find anything.
|> 
|> See above for putting sub-folders etc for templates.

Do templates care where they are? I mean, I would want to stick
the folder template (and a few others, probably) on teh desktop.

[deletia- sorting]
|> 
|> > Also, can you flow by other things (ya know, size, kind, etc? I use
|> > view-by kind a lot myself in the Finder)
|> 
|> Same thing in OS/2; it's sort-by.  Sort-by can do size, date, type, real
|> name, last write date, last write time, last access time, last access
|> date, creation date, and finally creation time.

Hmmm. Dat's not so bad. I like the "last access time" thing. (is it
last access date/time? Not that important, but..);

But it seems to be that splitting up times and dates is silly. Wouldn't
you rather have it by last write date/time or something?

[deletia- new folder commands, and menu convinience]
|> 
|> I don't know if this is any better, but OS/2 has conditional hierarchal
|> menus, where if you want to open the cascaded menu, you move the cursor
|> over the little button and then it opens the menu.  It's just the same
|> as in twm for x.

YUCK! I used twm. thats worse that the MacOs heirachials. At least those
provide some slop, so you can leave the item you are in en route to the
new submenu. Bleck! ptoo! Other nasty noises!

[deletia- Version Numbers, cacheing]

|> > |> Caching: yeah it can be done.  The standard OS/2 cache is about 128k. 
|> > |> Attributes like icons, title, background color, foreground color, fonts
|> > |> etc, are stored as part of the file and called Extended Attributes, or
|> > |> EA's.  EA's are about 4000 bytes depending on folder.  This can add up
|> > |> and of course, there are other things in the cache, so the attributes
|> > |> will probably be out of the cache in a few minutes anyway.
|> >  
|> > Uh, this sounds like a Disk Cache. The finder maintains a SEPARATE
|> > store of icons inside of itself.
|> 
|> That's really nice, but being a memory hog (for now at least), having
|> more main memory would help more than another cache.

True enuff.

[deletia- Extended Attributs and the Brain of Gordon Letwin]

[deletia- gorey details on Desktop Folder in MacOs]

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

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