I am totaly agree with Michael's view of the world. I'd add my favourite phrase on this topic: "some time ago, two 8bit MCUs @1MHz were enough to set a satellite into its orbit. Nowdays, a 3GHz CPU is not enough to load an office suit. Something went wrong."
I too am against XML. Michael Sokolov <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Steve Meier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> I really am interested in why or why not going with XML? > > How would I use XML with punched cards or paper tape? > >> So a few more details would be nice. > > OK, here are a few more details about me for you to mull over. I have > been called things like "Neo-Amish" or "Techno-Luddite". I am > fundamentally and totally against all forms of modern technology. I do > not have a personal computer and never will, for as one of my heroes Ken > Olsen has said, "There will never be a need for any individual to have a > computer in their home." My computer is a mainframe housed in an > underground bunker which I access remotely from ASCII terminals around > the world. ASCII text terminals in 80 columns of course. > > Well, OK, it is not truly a mainframe in the IPM EBCDIC sense, it's a > UNIX system, but I call it a mainframe because I use it in the > centralised computing access-through-terminals paradigm. It runs my own > version of UNIX (4.3BSD-Quasijarus) which is very very close in both > spirit and code to the original PDP-11 UNIX Version 7. (The hardware > platform is based on a VAX CPU, but it has been put together > specifically to run 4.3BSD-Quasijarus. It has never run VMS or any > other OS.) > > I fully and totally embrace the computing philosophy and world view of > the 1970s that has produced my OS of choice. I worship ed, sed, awk and > m4. No Perl, no Python, no XML, none of those latter-day abominations. > > It is all a conscientious choice. I can't stress this point enough. I > was wetting diapers and sucking my mom's breasts when UNIX Version 7 was > current, so it is not like that was my first computing platform and I > then never evolved. I have used DOS and Windows 3.1 in the past (so > long ago though that it's basically a past life), and even that > abomination called Micro$oft Word (for DOS), all before I had discovered > UNIX. Now regarding my choice of UNIX. My first encounter with UNIX > was in 1995 upon coming to USA with my parents (at age 15.5). My > decision to forego "modern" UNIX and opt for the V7-like 4.3BSD didn't > come until around 1998. Obviously a very deliberate and conscientious > choice; in 1998 there was plenty to choose from: Linux, modern *BSD, > you name it. But I have chosen the 1970s technology, philosophy and > paradigm. *HAVE CHOSEN* are the operative words. > >> Also, which office suite do you use? > > Pen and paper usually, sometimes a manual typewriter. > > Seriously though, I have absolutely no need for an office suite. > Writing papers: 99% of the time I write them in plain text files in vi. > On those special occasions that call for fancy formatting with non- > teletype fonts etc. I use troff, a non-WYSIWYG text formatter that takes > source code in a text formatting programming language on stdin and emits > PostScript on stdout. (I only use PostScript printers of course, and > only the large "workhorse" type like HP LaserJet 4Si or 5Si, Digital > PrintServer series, etc.) > > Spreadsheets: no need for them. I do math the way every Soviet kid has > been taught in elementary school: columnar addition, subtraction and > multiplication, long division. Works equally well on a piece of paper, > on the brown chalkboard, or in an ASCII text file in vi. There is also > dc(1), with or without the bc(1) front end, and the good old TI-85 > calculator for problems complex enough to where messing with the > calculator is easier than doing the math in my head or a scrap piece of > paper. > > If I ever have a need to get really fancy and need functionality like > formulas in spreadsheets where one can change inputs and everything > recalculates automatically, I'll just whip up an awk or m4 script for > the problem at hand. Need to have the output professionally presented > along with text etc? No problem, just whip up another script or > Makefile that takes the math data, combines it with other stuff (cat(1) > or include directives should do the job) and feeds it into troff. > > Think outside the box. You don't need an office suite just because you > think you need one. People in 1970s did just fine without office > suites, and so do I. Same for XML. > > MS > > > _______________________________________________ > geda-user mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user > -- Levente http://web.interware.hu/lekovacs _______________________________________________ geda-user mailing list [email protected] http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
