From: zmonster@athena.mit.edu (Eric M Hermanson)
Subject: Re: Mac multitasking?
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 01:54:59 GMT

>>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.  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.  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.  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.

>
>>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.

>>>
>>>>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!

Eric


Organization: Sophomore, H&SS general, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA