Re: 'Peking' vs 'Beijing'
At 06:01 PM 4/9/03 +0100, Jim Dixon wrote:
I don't think that anyone who has learned to read and write one of the languages based on Chinese characters would agree that they are "atrocious". If your native language is written using a western alphabet, characters are hard to learn. But once learned, they are conveniently concise.
Yes, one's first operating system is always the best. Orientals were self-handicapped by not having a smaller alphabet. Horrible typewriters, and forget putting the glyphs into a mid-80's character ROM. Yes, they're concise, but they require very high resolution to render. And, at least some symbol sets are not phonetic.
On Wednesday, April 9, 2003, at 02:00 PM, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
At 06:01 PM 4/9/03 +0100, Jim Dixon wrote:
I don't think that anyone who has learned to read and write one of the languages based on Chinese characters would agree that they are "atrocious". If your native language is written using a western alphabet, characters are hard to learn. But once learned, they are conveniently concise.
Yes, one's first operating system is always the best.
If there is any insinuation that this implies to _computer_ OSes, I disagree completely. My first OS was some OS I don't remember from an HP 9825 computer. Too trivial to remember. (Actually, I used various BASIC machines prior to this, from 1968-74, but they rarely had OS names that were memorable.) Then RT-11 on a DEC PDP-11/34A. Then RSX-11M on the same machine. Then some exposure in 1978-79 to Unix, courtesy of some of my friends who were active in the Unix community. Then VMS for the VAX. Then PC-DOS for the first IBM PC. Then the LISP-based OS for the Symbolics LISP Machine. This was a wonderful OS. Then the Mac OS, starting with Finder 1.0/Chooser 1.0 in 1984 (and proceeding to every version). Occasional use of Windows 1.0 (horrible) in 1984, Windows 2.0 around 1986 (still unusable), and Windows 3.0/3.1 around 1990 (the first OS to catch up to where the Mac had been years earlier). For the past couple of years I've had Mac OS X on all four of my Macs able to run it efficiently. It has bits and pieces of BSD Unix, a Mach kernel, and of course a wonderful graphics interface. So, no, one's first OS is not always the best. --Tim May "We are at war with Oceania. We have always been at war with Oceania." "We are at war with Eurasia. We have always been at war with Eurasia." "We are at war with Iraq. We have always been at war with Iraq. "We are at war with France. We have always been at war with France."
On Wednesday, April 9, 2003, at 08:36 PM, Tim May wrote:
For the past couple of years I've had Mac OS X on all four of my Macs able to run it efficiently. It has bits and pieces of BSD Unix, a Mach kernel, and of course a wonderful graphics interface.
So, no, one's first OS is not always the best.
Agreed. My first was an HP 2000E BASIC timesharing system. If it had a recognizable OS, I don't remember the name. My second was a PDP 11/03. Useable. My third was a TRS-80 and TRSDOS. Please don't force me to remember it. Then an Atari 800. Marginal. (But very nice graphics for the day. Thank you Jay Miner) Then the venerable Amiga 1000. AmigaDOS had multitasking, and some other innovative GUI features. The whole machine worked like a charm, but lacked memory protection. Graphics were way ahead of its time. Thanks again Jay Miner and crew. Then various incarnations of DOS/Winbloze. A real low point. And then Mac OS X. Like a breath of fresh air. BSD on top of Mach. Fantastic graphics and a mind blowing GUI. Just yesterday I saw a demo of the standard OpenGL silver teapots spinning around over a Mac OS X desktop while a DVD was playing. As the OpenGL teapots spun past the DVD, the DVD content was playing and reflecting in the silver surface of the teapots. In real time. My jaw dropped. And then my jaw dropped. That this was even possible is a testament to an incredible graphics architecture. ObCrypto: And of course the really great gpg plugins for the standard mac os x mail client ;-) jim burnes
participants (3)
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jburnes -
Major Variola (ret) -
Tim May