Re: A+/InCider article: ACK!

[hal@budapest.math.macalstr.edu (Harold Byron Bouma)]

Stephen L. Hood writes
> I just picked up a copy of the December 1992 issue of "A+/InCider", and I 
> am agast.  
> 
> The "Bridging the Gap" column, written by Greg Keizer, focuses this month 
> on the "Gappie" awards, A+/InCider's awards for products that demonstrate 
> the best or worst in Apple/Mac connectivity.
> 
> The first award was for "Best Technical Performance: GS", and went to 
> "Pointless", because, "not only does Pointless let you use TrueType on the 
> IIGS, but with a little help from you, it can move Mac, even Windows, 
> TrueType fonts to the GS."  It is blatantly untrue that Pointless can 
> interpret "Windows" format TrueType fonts.  Such action requires the use 
> of either Mac or DOS applications to convert between the Windows and Mac TT
> formats.

	Well, unless he mentioned that you can do it with just a GS alone  
doesn't mean that its untrue. Its not that hard to run down an Mac/IBM to  
convert some fonts if you really need to. And its not that hard to run a  
IBM->Mac font conversion program.


> Certainly, I would welcome the addition of aliasing and shared folders.  
> But what of System 7?  It snagged the "Best Technical Performance:  Mac" 
> award, mostly because of its shared folder features.
 
> I personally want nothing more of the Mac OS than aliasing.  The scrolling 
> thumbs on the Mac do not resize according to the size of the document, 
> creating a very non-intuitive interface.  Folding sharing on the IIGS 
> would be impractical -- how many schools use GS/OS anyway?

	Well, yes, it was a grave mistake to overlook the HFS FST, its one of  
GS/OS most underrated features, But I think Mr. Kreizer is overlooking one  
major delima. Aliasing and shared folders really only benifits users who access  
a device over a network. And thats the main reason why Apple put them in System  
7. However, since the GS cannot be a fileserver, the need for it is a moot  
point, because using Appleshare gives it to the GS user anyways. Now if he  
would have made a point about making the GS not being able to be a file server,  
I would have found that argument much more acceptable. But just whining about  
features which aren't really appropiate for the current GS configuration is  
lame.

| Hal Bouma                            | Send mail to: HBouma@Macalstr.edu    |
| Macalester College, St. Paul, MN.    | and           HBouma@Macalstr.Bitnet |
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