Re: bigots - was Emacs - was Mail/news software
On Fri, May 12, 2000 at 08:44:35AM +0700, Oki DZ wrote:
> > I'm not against thinking, don't get me wrong. I actually *program* for fun.
> > I just like to focus my mental energies. i.e. why mount; cp; umount when I
> > can mcopy? Why type:
> >
> > mv ~/Mail/Debian ~/Mail/Debian-`date +%Y%m%d`
> >
> > every single day when I can stick it in an alias or a shell script?
>
> Script-writing needs some sort of thinking, right...?
That's part of my point. The other part is; script RUNNING doesn't demand
thinking. To be honest, It was also a bit of showing off, that I DO know
how to use the command line, and actually like it. :)
> > An OS should get out of the way,and not demand anything of you.
>
> If you use Mac OS 7.x, 8.x, and even 9.x and if you need to get to the
> shell, the OS will get you in the way; the same for any other OSes that
> have "weak" shells.
That's another angle; I have a Mac Plus, and I don't find it too bad, you
know? The only time there's a limitation is when you want to do simple
automation, or write your own stuff. Forget the niceties of the Unix
toolbox...
I call Windows a 'weak' shell, since the system isn't really designed for a
shell. It just doesn't extend to the core. (I mean, file extensions.
Let's be realistic! Pure trash!)
Back to the Mac, you might be surprised to know how many internal and
external similarities there are between the early Macs and the Palm [Pilot].
It's practically the same machine; and I NEVER had an occasion to want to
get to a shell on my Palm.
> I don't think that doing the hard way would be the solution to all
> computing problems. All I want to say is that having things get automated
> (click & drag) without having a possibility to get to "under the hood"
> would lead you into the "non-thinking-mode." In the long run, you'd be a
> clueless person. It happened to me; long ago I was a Mac user, and I
> thought that I needed something more interesting than just a nice GUI.
Ah, then you know the Mac thing. I think it's important to have both;
Critical, in fact. Otherwise, the bigotry that our illustrative olvwm users
had would never have allowed something like GNOME... I do think GNOME is a
brilliant piece of work; so is KDE, but I don't think it's for me...
> ps: BTW, why did you send your email to my address only? I believe that we
> had the conversation on the list.
I wasn't interested in a flamewar... my intention was to say one thing then
park it. When I realized your comment was to both, I wished I posted it
there too!
I think the best comment over the emacs thing was; someone said "it's not an
editor, it's a virtual machine" Now that makes great sense! Now someone
needs to come up with something as clever to explain vi... :)
--
Jonathan Markevich <jmarkevich@mad.scientist.com>
http://members.xoom.com/JMarkevich
Fuch's Warning:
If you actually look like your passport photo, you aren't well
enough to travel.
Reply to: