Re: Apple Systems

[gareth@freenet.vancouver.bc.ca (Gareth Jones)]

: > In article <809375223.26638@contech.demon.co.uk>, 
: > <sbehrens@contech.demon.co.uk> writes:
: > > 
: > Just how different ARE the GS and Mac destops?

The faces are similar, the bone structures are entirely different. Here 
are a few examples of differences, from the top of my head.
 
1. Macintosh System 6 has optional multitasking (several programs in 
memory at once). With System 7.x thatis the only way that the machine 
works. I'm aware that you can add something similar by buying the program 
"The Manager" for the GS, but it isn't a capability in the operating system.

2. Aliases are really different. On a Mac, you create an alias from the 
File menu, not "Extras," and the alias has the same icon as the original 
(but an italicized name) and the alias works in EXACTLY the same way as 
the original. E.g. you can open a document from a standard file dialogue 
by selecting its alias. And you can create an alias of any type of file, 
unlike the GS.

3. You can select a bunch of file icons on the mac and drag them onto an 
application icon (or its alias, of course) to open them all up. ("Drag 
and Drop")

4. The GS Finder is SUPPOSED to support the trick of selecting a document 
then selecting "Print" from the file menu. The Mac actually does support 
this.

5. Desk accessories are obsolete on the Mac. You can make ANY program 
into a desk accessory by putting it or its alias into a folder called 
"Apple Menu Items"

6. Publish and Subscribe is built into the syste, instead of just into a 
couple of exceptional programs from The Byte Works

7. Balloon Help menu

8. Support for PostScript and TrueType fonts is built in. Either type of 
font can be automatically downloaded to a PostScript printer. (I'd kill 
for this on my GS).

9. Much easier to change icons. You can Copy an icon from an Icon 
Info window and Paste it onto any other file's icon info window. It then 
becomes the file's icon.

There are also things that I prefer about the GS, such as the fact that 
the standard File Save dialogue box has a button for creating a new 
folder, the Finder has a Windows menu, text editing includes commands 
for forward-delete and delete to end of line, Teach has a built-in 
colour menu, and you can format a hard drive without having to have a 
special, and perhaps incompatible, driver file on hand, and so on. On the 
whole, however, the Mac system has been developed much farther than my
 beloved GS's.

-Gareth