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

[Torbjörn Hörnfeldt]

I have to second that. The DEC TOPS-20 CLI was delight to use, especially
in combination with Emacs... those were the days! Always wondered why
MS did not copy that approach for DOS (earlier).

Torbjörn

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don Tillman" <don at till.com>
To: <ka4hjh at gte.net>
Cc: <synth-diy at node12b53.a2000.nl>
Sent: Friday, January 12, 2001 10:17 AM
Subject: completely off topic (was Memory deals, was Mac OS emulation on PC)


>    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
>