Glenn said in part "... I know some of you sort of dislike "automobile analogies to personal computers"... but sometimes they make great illustrations. ..."
Glenn: Last week National Public Radio's "Science Friday" had a discussion about good and bad product design criteria - included on the show were three big name designer's with what they liked and disliked. At one point one of them spoke about the concept of "what ever level of technology you learn on - from then on you will compare all other similar technologies." The example he spoke about was the lack of a horn ring on 1990 and later cars compared to pre-1970's vehicles. Since many of us learned DOS before we tried other operating systems, we do tend to compare the "newer" or "different" operating system stuff back to the DOS concepts and procedures we first learned. However, as you clearly pointed out, that really should not give any of us the license to say our originally learned computer operating system is "always better" than another one. What I see happening is many folks fail to "RTFM = read the freaken manuals". Simply because when we learned DOS in the early 1980s the average manual was a technical reference for commands at best - and at worst was an unfathomable pile of technobabble. Today's latest documentation is far superior to what it was two to fifteen years ago. Each generation of the on-line help screens, printable documents, OEM documentation, and aftermarket user manuals are much better than the previous generations - if they aren't they won't get word-of-mouth recommendations and their sales will slide into nothingness. I doubt seriously anyone on any SURVPC discussion list would attempt to fly a private plane without classroom time, without RTFM, and a minimum of hands-on time with a qualified instructor. In many ways the (latest) all purpose computer, when it is loaded with specialized software applications, is as daunting as piloting a small fixed wing aircraft. SO if you have a predisposition to not RTFMing, then you will often make assumptions that are very far from being accurate. John Oram To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message. Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies. More info can be found at; http://www.softcon.com/archives/SURVPC.html
