Re: All this fuss about Backward Compatibility

[gareth@vcn.bc.ca (Gareth Jones)]

Mitchell Spector (spec@vax2.concordia.ca) wrote:
(snip)

:     Interestingly, I once asked an entire group of loyal Macintosh
: owners to list me limitations of their machines. I basically said,
: what would you like to see changed, if you could magically do so. 
: I only got one response, and that was that Apple doesn't spend enough 
: on advertising the Macintosh. They honestly couldn't think of anything 
: else, all seriously believed there was nothing that needed change. 
: And obviously, that one "flaw" pointed out, doesn't even relate to the 
: Mac's hardware or software, it's something external to the issue (Apple
: Computer's marketing execs).

: Mitchell Spector
: spec@vax2.concordia.ca

Perhaps the only way that most people can see the limitations of a 
computer is to _use_ a different computer. Any contrasts in the way they 
operate provide grist for the "I prefer it _this_ way" mill. For example, 
I would probably muster placid acceptance of the lack of a command key 
for emptying the trash on a Mac, except that my GS has one. Similarly, 
GS "hot keys" in dialogue boxes have spoiled me. And I still can't 
understand why the "Control-f" and "Control-Y" editing commands never got 
implemented on the Mac! In the other direction, 
the Mac's elegant multitasking, the "Apple Menu Items" folder, 
AppleScript, and excellent PostScript printer driver (supporting 
greyscale and colour, among other things) are things that I wish were on 
my GS.

I am certain that the same process within Apple led many GS features to 
leak into the Mac (e.g. the *:System:Fonts folder) and Mac features into 
the GS (to choose a trivial example, the calculator DA). These days, the 
Mac is borrowing ideas from Windows at about the rate that Windows is 
(still) borrowing from it. No, that was not meant as flame bait!

-Gareth