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From: guy@rlgvax.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: Want MacSlots? Get a Lisa 2
Message-ID: <1662@rlgvax.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 4-Feb-84 19:42:38 EST
Article-I.D.: rlgvax.1662
Posted: Sat Feb  4 19:42:38 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 9-Feb-84 03:34:45 EST
References: <1662@randvax.ARPA>
Organization: CCI Office Systems Group, Reston, VA
Lines: 30

> That issue of InfoWorld conveys the unmistakeable impression of true
> MacLove.  Having recently gotten a hands-on dealer MacDemo (sorry--I can't
> resist), I confess to similar feelings.  How can you get emotional about a
> micro?  My more rational side tells me I don't really need all that hand-
> holding, all those cute icons, etc, etc.  Give me a decent
> keyboard/terminal, and maybe Un*x, and I can do anything I need/want.
> Typing commands doesn't bother me.  But, jeeze, that Mac sure is FUN.  I
> long ago gave in to emotion in the purchase of cars; maybe that's my fate
> in micros, too...

When I first moved from a batch system to an interactive system, it was
much the same; I didn't really *need* to be able to tell the computer to
compile a program and see the results of the compilation immediately, with
the ability to zip into the editor, correct the problem, and repeat the
compilation, but it sure was *fun*.  I'd be curious to see what a UNIX shell
constructed around the principle of "well, we can put any kind of image that
we want to on the screen, and we can point to anything on the screen quickly,
so let's not assume that we have to print a prompt and read a command line"
would look like, and where it would be better and where it would be worse
than the current command-oriented user interface.  Face it, the user interface
of UNIX, VMS, MVS/TSO, VM/CMS, RSX-11M, CP/M, MS-DOS, etc. differ from one
anoter *far* less than they *all* differ from the desktop-style user interface
developed by Xerox and appropriated by Apple.  However, the underlying OS
doesn't necessarily tie closely with the user interface provided to the
system; one could have a UNIX system that provided a desktop-style user
interface, just as one could probably stick a conventional command interpreter
onto the Mac, or Lisa, or Star, or...

	Guy Harris
	{seismo,ihnp4,allegra}!rlgvax!guy