🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <7619@sdcsvax.UCSD.Edu> fellman@celece.ucsd.edu (Ronald Fellman)
 writes:
>As was already pointed out, it is a simple matter to replace the .nib
>files for any particular language or environment you choose.  

I thought that was "only so long as you don't increase its size" (for
the common case of compiled-in nibs).  Haven't checked recently, so
I'll have to browse around and see what turns up.

>Why should anyones' own machine have to carry around extra baggage
>that they won't use, whatever their origin.  They will want to have a
>manual in their own language also I presume, thus it is desirable to
>have seperate versions of a program.

I think you missed the point here.  I don't think anyone seriously
suggested that one copy of anything would contain the "extra baggage"
of multi-lingual dialog boxes.  The point is that the internationali-
zation support on the Mac makes it easier for vendors to produce those
separate versions of programs faster, more easily, and more reliably.

>I have found that very few applications can really make good enough use
>of color to justify its high cost.  

In general, I agree.  For *my* purposes, 8-bit grayscale is preferable
to color.  I don't treat it as an important issue because it's not, to
*me*.  I won't presume to tell someone else that it's not important at
all.

>How many different types of drawing programs or word precessors do you
>need?

One of each, that *works*. :-) Having half-a-dozen makes it possible
for competition to produce better ones, as well as letting me pick the
one that most fits my style (currently, my document-production style
is Emacs+LaTeX, and my drawing program is Yap; go figure).  While
we're discussing "practical" applications, how many vertical-market
accounting systems are there for the NeXT (and, to be nasty, I'll
specify that it must be able to handle 30-character account numbers,
and break on no less than 9 subsets of that number)?  I don't need it
now, but I know quite a few people who do, and they won't be buying
NeXTs.

>When I said VERY soon, I meant 2 weeks in most cases to 1 month for
>X-Windows (Jan 15.).  I'll bet that it would take about that long for
>the ordering process anyway.

It's vaporware until I *see* it.  And where do I go to see it?  Why,
Businessland, of course, which is about a hundred miles from here.
Assuming they carry it.  Assuming they understand it.  Assuming they
don't drive me out of the store by knowing substantially less than I
do about the machines they sell.  Assuming they sell machines (I
haven't seen any sales figures, but my impression is that there's not
a lot going out the door).

>With NextStep, every program can integrate the abilities of any of the
>other programs via Mach IPC. Thus, I don't need an editor built into
>each application.  The 'Editor' can be automatically integrated into
>any application.

Quick!  How do I make "any application" call Emacs instead of Edit?
If you can't answer, your point is null.  If I can't figure it out by
poking through Librarian, it's useless to me, and there are a *lot* of
things which can't currently be found that way.  Full-text indexing is
interesting, but there's a lot to be said for a decent "normal" index.

>Also, Interface Builder makes consistancy built-in with predefined
>print menus, edit menus, etc.  that already are wired up and work.

(excuse me while I chuckle heartily.  Nothing against IB, but it ain't
the last word in user interface toolkits.  I had a grad student sum it
up nicely: "it's an evolutionary step up from X or Prototyper, but not
revolutionary")

>>Hardware is only as useful as the software that is running on it.

>True. It very much depends upon what applications you need and the
>environment.  For a networked system in a UNIX environment, the Mac
>doesn't even come close.

And the NeXT does?  Despite a great deal of improvement since 0.8, the
NeXT is still not quite at home in a Unix network.  Proprietary system
administration, subtle (and blatant) differences from "standard" Unix
(arbitrarily defined as SunOS 3.5, just because that's what I compare
it with most), and, neither last nor least, Yet Another Windowing
Paradigm.

  Mac, X10, X11, SunView, MGR, NeWS, Motif, Open Look, weenie-widgets
(ok, HPWM for X11), and ... NextStep.  *Just* what we need.  Yet
Another Way to handle scrollbars, Yet Another Way to implement
click-to-type, Yet Another Way to handle a mouse.  Yet Another Way to
Confuse Users (not that this is NeXT's fault, necessarily; the legal
silliness currently stifling the industry is mostly to blame).

>With a little knowledge of NeXT's finances, I'm not worried about them
>going away for at least a few more years.  I think that they therefore
>have enough time to become a serious contender.

My usual response is, "the only thing that could put NeXT out of
business right now is the fall of Western Civilization (such as it
is)".


			"Can I open my eyes yet?"
				"That depends.  Are you waiting
				 for us to be anywhere near ground?"
			"Right."
				"Keep your eyes shut."
			"Right."
--
J Greely (jgreely@cis.ohio-state.edu; osu-cis!jgreely)