ptok@void.caltech.edu (phillip tokumaru) (05/07/91)
In article <9166@idunno.Princeton.EDU> sksircar@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Subrata Sircar) writes: > Well, as far as that goes... > > I've still got my Apple II+ with 48K, two floppy drives, and a printer. I've > got Microsoft Basic, Pascal, a word processor, Visicalc and oodles of games. > It suffices for text entry, but just doesn't cut it against my roommate's Mac > IIci, with 8M memory, 80M hard disk, Word 4.0, Hypercard, Matlab, and oodles > of games. That's why I'm going to get one of those soon. > > (I'd get a NeXT, but without Matlab and a good word processor (I exclude Write > Now from that category :<) a lot of what I'd use it for just doesn't happen. > My immediate needs are thesis writing (for which I'll use the Mac) and number > crunching (for which I use an Iris or a Mac) and I don't see that changing > real soon. If we could just talk the people at Mathworks into optimizing > Matlab for the '040 ...) If you're writing a thesis use TeX/LaTeX, it comes with the NeXT! I wrote my thesis on the Mac using Textures (a very nice version of TeX), I switched it over to my NeXT, it was painless (I had most of my figures in Postscript) Also, the NexT runs TeX an order of magnitude faster than a Mac IIci... If you don't like TeX, get FrameMaker, but for goodness sake, don't drool over the word processing software on the Mac. (I would never write my thesis in Word!) As far as number crunching goes, I did an FFT on my MacIIci and my NextStation, the Next is 8-10 times faster!!! Who cares if MatLab isn't optomized for the '040 (whatever you mean by that), the Next can still run circles around a MacIIci (and a VAX for that matter). But wait, that's not all, you also get... Mathematica... (educational user) Ethernet... (with e-mail, ftp, telnet, gui newsreaders(free on archives)...) Real Multitasking (u*ix)... Dictionary/Thesaurus/a spell checker that works in every application... Postscript & dvi previewer... programming languages and tools... a unix shell terminal... a slicer/dicer... If nothing else, give your roommate $$$ envy, get a NeXT, it's cheaper than a MacIIci! ..well, o.k., the Mac has more games...
sksircar@shade.Princeton.EDU (Subrata Sircar) (05/08/91)
ptok@void.caltech.edu writes: >If you're writing a thesis use TeX/LaTeX, it comes with the NeXT! I wrote my >thesis on the Mac using Textures (a very nice version of TeX), I switched it >over to my NeXT, it was painless (I had most of my figures in Postscript) >Also, the NexT runs TeX an order of magnitude faster than a Mac IIci... As several people have pointed out, between TeX, Framemaker, emacs and WordPerfect, there is probably something that suits everyone's needs. I'll agree; I'm an emacs junkie myself. However, I'm still going to (at least draft) write my theis in Word. Reasons: 1) There is only one NeXT with TeX easily accessible to me (in my lab) while there are umpteen Macs. I don't have to wait for the machine, and if I use my roommate's I can work at home. (The NeXT cluster here doesn't seem to have TeX at least when a labmate of mine checked. I couldn't find it either). 2) I'm very familiar with Word, and can set up style sheets etc. in minimal time. I've only used TeX once before (I used emacs and Scribe to write my undergrad thesis) and the startup time would be much greater. 3) I don't really like the way TeX looks out of the NeXT printer. Word seems to give a much more solid feel (that's probably just me, using the wrong font). >As far as number crunching goes, I did an FFT on my MacIIci and my NextStation >the Next is 8-10 times faster!!! Who cares if MatLab isn't optomized for the >'040 (whatever you mean by that), the Next can still run circles around a >MacIIci (and a VAX for that matter). Yes, the NeXT is much faster (with an '040, which we don't have yet because we haven't gotten our Allegro Common Lisp upgrade, which we must have). However, I need Matlab (specifically). I do control design, which means I need LQR, Kalman filter algorithms, Ricatti equation solutions, etc. on a regular basis. All of that is provided (or has been written) in Matlab on the Mac; Matlab doesn't exist for the NeXT. I don't want to have to start over (although for my thesis application, I am going to have to implement some of that. This way I don't have to wait to finish those before I can continue analyzing stuff.) Matlab is one of the best products I've seen. Our lab swears by it. Mathworks doesn't seem to have any plans to port it, which is a shame. If they did, I'd probably buy a NeXT. Hopefully, when Apple brings out the '40 Tower Mac, they will port it to that. As I understand it, the matlab kernel is optimized for each processor, and then the front end is built on. Once they port it to an '040, porting it to the NeXT should be easy. However, they didn't do it for the '030. Presumably, they don't think their potential market is large enough to justify the expense (which seems wrong to me, especially since their expense is a one-time thing - then you just keep up with the hardware upgrades), either due to low NeXT sales or low need on a NeXT for this product. Does anyone else agree with me that Matlab and the NeXT should happen? or am I a lone voice in the wilderness? :<) >a slicer/dicer... Wait! A slicer/dicer?! That's it, I need a NeXT! :<) >If nothing else, give your roommate $$$ envy, get a NeXT, it's cheaper than a >MacIIci! Actually, here, if I bought a NeXTstation with 400M HD and upgraded it, it would be more expensive than a MacIIci with 160M HD (>$5G as compared to <$5G) >..well, o.k., the Mac has more games... The real reason shows through! :<) Subrata Sircar | sksircar@phoenix.princeton.edu |Prophet& SPAMIT Charter Member I don't speak for Princeton, and they don't speak for me. "May their souls rot in easy-listening hell!" - Johnny Melnibone, GRIMJACK #76 "I seem to suffer from irrelevant flashbacks." - Paul, PAUL THE SAMURAI #1
mig@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Meir) (05/10/91)
>>..well, o.k., the Mac has more games... > >The real reason shows through! :<) Don't you like games? Some of us like games enough to buy a machine that can run them, but we don't want TWO machines. Besides, games are a very good indicator of the quantity and availability of software and the popularity of the platform. If I saw that hundreds of games were being developed for the Next, then I would be SURE that the Next is here to stay, and that the market is there for hundreds of applications. I wouldn't worry that my $4 grand Next would be idle in 10 years for lack of software. No, I don't think that Emacs is good enough. I'm talking about REAL software, which is made to take advantage of the Next's abilities...Next Step, DSP, etc.. At this point, the only SURE thing is the Mac and the IBM and Unix. Let's see a UNIX standard for those GAMES, huh!? Oh boy! I can't wait until all platforms run the SAME software--no more "ports"! (I know, standards...keep on dreaming) * * * * * * * ======================= Meir Green * * * * * * * * ======================= mig@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu * * * * * * * ======================= N2JPG