Re: top <repeat 100 times \r rant \r end repeat>
Re: top <repeat 100 times \r rant \r end repeat>
- Subject: Re: top <repeat 100 times \r rant \r end repeat>
- From: Roger Howard <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2002 20:34:46 -0700
And ls /usr/bin reminds me again of what I said about everything being
dumped in a heap for the user to sort out in their own mind. Why not
include information in each that allows them to be viewed by "topic"
[wrong
word, but can't think of a better one] - filesystem operations, text
munging, etc. - instead of purely alphabetical? Have I missed
something, or
is the machine really that unhelpful? Tell me this stuff _couldn't_ be
made
easier...
It could - it would certainly be non-standard additions to Unix, but
then everything on Unix starts that way! But it would go a long way
towards improving the overall accessibility to Unix for novices. This
could be handled by Apple in a number of ways - an extension to "ls"
would be possible (there are already many possible builds) so, for
instance, ls -d (pardon the pun) might add a description column from an
Apple-specified datafile; a new "lse" (enhanced) tool maybe; and I like
the idea of a smarter Terminal. All of these things could be possible
without breaking the Unix layer for backwards compatibility. These are
pretty big integration issues though, and certainly won't happen
without a lot of deliberation.
FWIW - I'm quite comfortable with the shell, have used Unix for almost
15 years now. I can get around, and figure out just about anything I
want to do. However, I can see some more room for improvement - not to
disparage Apple for what they've done (build the first truly friend
Unix-based OS), but to encourage them to do more in this area. The
Terminal could do better with tracking user context, being smart with
tool output, etc; the Finder could integrate better with the shell
(after all, they are essentially peers).
Anyway, I'm drifting into fantasyland. I just wanted to point out that
all of these things are doable, without fear of breaking compatibility
with the common Unix platform. I would, however, stress that changes to
the unix layer which would impact our ability to run common tools would
be foolish at best, so these changes must happen at a layer above, much
as the rest of OSX already does.
Cheers,
roger howard
senior digital media specialist the j. paul getty museum
mail email@hidden
mail email@hidden
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