jeffb@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Jeffrey C. Buchsbaum) (02/22/90)
Many interesting points and bugs to discuss. First, I am a paid shareware user _Launch 2.0, which lunarbiscuit at CMU sent to paying users. I find it bombs a lot, "corrupting" its data file. My fix; make a back up of your data file and live with it. On the new Wdef 1.53 Cdev, I love it. You can avoid applications that are not window friendly...excel, some draws .... One note, I run MPW 3.1 (a great environment) doing thesis research in the background via a big fortran simulation. Well, clicking on an MPW 3.1 window when wdef is NOT changing MPW but is changing the finder causes MPW to "unexpectedly quit".... VERY annoying. So, if you use multifinder (6.1b9 came with my MPW3.1 C bundle), let the buyer beware of this MPW-Wdef problem. Other notes. Having read some stuff about the new IBM's in comp.sys.ibm.rt I do not think that mac users have much to fear yet. Having used windows on an AT, X11 on a DecStation, RT, RT-6152(IBM ps2 60 with a card), and the NeXT, the mac has the best screen behaviour and an amazingly robust environment. For example, in multifinder 6.1b9, when MPW dies as above (running a 20MFlop Mercury Nubus array processor ....in a complex way, so I have no idea if Wdef is really at fault, only that its addition is the straw that breaks...), I still have a fully running system. No system crash. Amazing considering no formal memory stuff. On that note, if Apple wants the one thing that would make lots of users happy, it is that dreaded memory protection. I want stability before all else. I need to have a control-Z kill type of thing like Unix. I HATE system errors that take out everything. I would like to know that if something weird happens, my other stuff will not be damaged or lost. I heard/read that Apple has a fully functional version of Mach for macs. When do we get this? While I am wasting bandwidth, I would like to say thank you to the people at Sumex, Rascal, NCSA.uiuc.edu, the virus protection authors of Disinfectant, Virus Detective, Eradicator... and to the shareware people who, imho, are the ones responsible for making the mac fun and exciting. With all the foul language about, sometimes you have to sit back and remember how lucky you are to have s omething to complain about.... though I don't like crippleware either. :-) (I sent my check in for MacPassword though, having tried the posted stuff....) As usual, there are lots of opinions and trademarks. Standard discalaimers apply. My school has lots to do with my opinions...but not legally. Jeff Buchsbaum Dartmouth Physics jeffb@mac.dartmouth.edu (our in house mac mail....icons and all) jeffb@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (our vax11/785 public unix box)