scott@spectra.COM (Tim Scott) (01/05/90)
Gork! I got more opinions on this subject than you can shake a
pointing device at. But hopefully this posting will contain a little
info...
A) Disclaimer 1: Sorry if all this has been treated of already. Lots
of posts to wade thru.
B) I use VAX VMS and [losts of types of]Unix at work, Mac at home and
MS-DOS at a part time job. I used each of these systems for at least
3 years and have written lots of code for all of them.
1. Reading a downloaded file...has been covered. I set up my copy of
VersaTerm Pro (e.g.) to create a Microsoft word document ("file"
to non-Mac users). Double click on it, you're there.
2. Awk, sed, pipes, filters, etc. I have had to do horrible things
like convert an address data base from Avery List&Mail (at my
PT jobs) to my Ma (at home). The first time I do things like
this is always a pain, but when I explain it, it seems
easy :-) Considering the equipment I had available to me, this
is what I did:
1. Export ALM file on MS-DOS machine. Stupid ALM doesn't emit
tabs...
2. Write it to a 5.25" floppy
3. Read it using DOSREAD on IBM PC-RT with AIX at Spectragraphics
4. ftp it to a VAX 6210 running Ultrix (which has kermit).
5. From home, dial in to the 6210 and upload the file to my
Mac using Versaterm
6. Import the file into "MORE". Using MORE's version of
regular expressions, convert multiple spaces to tabs.
[Practical problem: what a dog on my Mac SE. Took 45 min
to filter a 160K file. Feh.]
7. Export as text, open Excel. Open the text file.
8. Wowsers! Just what I need. I can juggle, sort, change
fonts, etc. If I want to make a beauteous address listing
or print mailing labels, etc., I can export this to another
program.
3. I love using the Mac. Programming it was fun but not for the
faint of heart. I like the consistency of applications.
I hate its price, the arrogance of Apple, the ignorant millionares
who sell Macs at the local retailer (:-) we're talking these
guys making some serious money!), the slowness combined with
the lack of multiprocessing (for instance, the filtering job
I mentioned above. As you can probably guess, I had to do it
more than once to get it exactly right.)
I hate the sloppiness of successful/large developers (T/Maker
was the worst...sent me WriteNow 2.0 TEN MONTHS after they said
it would be ready!) Programs whose new versions are double
the size of the current, while adding a handful of new whistles
and bells...
4. Some of the best comments are from the guy (sorry, forgot the
attribution) that hardware/software is for the USER. Flame
away all you want about how hard the Mac is to code for, and
I'll agree with you. But when I use ReadySetGo, Pagemaker,
Excel, and most of the good paint programs, I'm glad there
are programmers who can write good progs for the Mac.
5. Apples and oranges. You ought to talk to the guy here who had
the dp department put together a DTP system for him: 386
clone, Calcomp color 5902a printer, 82 meg drive (that the
formatter will only allow to format 62 meg!), NEC Multisync,
VGA, ScanMan, Pagemaker, Harvard Graphics, Windows. And a month of
pain and anguish as he tries to get the pig to work. Including
a lot of volunteered help from real PC experts.
Help from the vendors? Forget it. Except for the color output,
he could have been up and running in an afternoon with a Mac II...
Flame away. Got another friend with an Amiga. You think the Mac
people are religious :-) :-) If it ever works right, maybe
I'll TRASH the Mac (and tell Apple to blow it out their
gazorninplatz) and get an Amiga.
Well, until a computer that does it ALL comes out...I'll keep the
Mac. (And no, a Unix system at home is not the answer. I don't
want to spend the rest of my life making chunks of software
from a million different places work together...I spend enough
time doing that during the day for money!)
But the bottom line is: I'm glad we got these things at all, having
a choice between them is great.
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Tim P Scott . . sending from: Spectragraphics Corp.
9707 Waples St., San Diego CA 92121 [USA]+619-587-6834
Try: scott@spectra.com or ...{ucsd!}nosc!spectra!scott