completely off topic (was Memory deals, was Mac OS emulation on PC)

[Don Tillman]

   Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2001 02:25:29 -0500
   From: KA4HJH <ka4hjh at gte.net>

   >"A computer without a Microsoft operating system is like a dog
   >without a bunch of bricks tied to its head."

   This reminds me of Alan Kay's (SmallTalk) old remark (before Jobs
   snagged all of XPARC's ideas) that a command line/text based
   computer was like using a pencil glued to a brick.

As much as I respect Alan Kay, I should point out that a *good*
command line interface will have english (or your favorite language)
commands in a consistant format, command completion so you don't have
to type in the whole thing or be stuck with goofy abreviations, a
history mechanism, a defaulting mechanism, and a context-dependent
help facility so you can ask questions along the way about possible
commands, arguments or options.  And of course the ability to script
operations.

The Emacs editor has had a command line interface like this for
20-something years, and it's remarkably powerful, efficient and easy
to use.

A command line interface is generally a verb-noun operation while a
mouse click is a noun-verb operation plus a limited selection of verbs
available from menus or pallettes.  The mouse click requires the noun
or verb to be visually available on the screen, while the command line
does not.

(Sorry, it's way off topic.  But hopefully interesting or entertaining.)

  -- Don

-- 
Don Tillman
Palo Alto, California, USA
don at till.com
http://www.till.com