Re: Utility to write DOS 3.3 disks under GS/OS?

[pausch@saaf.se (Paul Schlyter)]

In article <20040529183237.16718.00000129@mb-m29.aol.com>,
Michael J. Mahon <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote:
> On a separate, but related, topic...
> 
> <flame>
> Non-techie family members regularly forward emails to me
> that contain JPG-encoded pictures that they "cannot open"
> on their Macs or PCs (yes, they use both).
> 
> The source of the problem is almost always the automatic
> invocation of a system-specific archiving or encoding format
> for an email attachment.
> 
> This is nonsense.
> 
> Email is intended to be a universal medium, not a balkanized
> medium of Mac-email users and PC-email users.  Base64 encoding
> was adopted as a _generic_ encoding for binary information, and
> it is very annoying to find Mac-sent email with BinHex encoded files.
> Of course, there are programs for every platform which can handle
> BinHex--but non-technical _users_ can't!
> 
> Archiving is another worthless distinction between the two camps.
> Stuffit is a fine archiver, though is doesn't pack most files as well
> as many Zip archivers.  Why can't we start a campaign to move to
> a generic archiver?  I realize that it will take 5-10 years to get it
> "mostly" done, for all practical purposes, but we need to get started.
> 
> I'm sure that Mac users will say that a new, "neutral" format must
> be chosen so as not to favor the PC platform, but, let's face it,
> with over 90% of the user base on PCs, it really does make more
> sense for the minority platform to move into conformance with
> the _de facto_ standards in use by the vast majority.
> 
> This would have the effect of making email with attachments almost
> as easy as plain email, finally.
> 
> Not only would I stop getting most "I can't open this attachment"
> pleas for help, but, more importantly, people who have given up
> on sending pictures, etc., through email would slowly regain their
> trust in it as a communication medium.
>  </flame>
> -michael
 
Perhaps this situation can be simply explained by one of APple's
commercial slogans:
 
    Think different.   Apple.
 
While flexible thinking certainly has advantages, insisting on always
doing things differently from others will bring a lot of disadvantages.
 
However, things are slowly improving: nowadays the Mac has adopted to
the same physical diskette format as most other computers -- back in
the GCR days of the Mac there was no way to read a Mac diskette on a
PC (or the other way around).  And the Mac reads the same kinds of
CD-ROM's as the rest of the world (actually the CD-ROM format was
the first common disk format for the Mac and the PC).
 
-- 
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