shell architecture (to glob or not to glob)

[klaus u schallhorn]

In article <4943 at awdprime.UUCP> daveb at bach.austin.ibm.com (Dave Burton) writes:
>In article <4584 at lib.tmc.edu> jmaynard at thesis1.hsch.utexas.edu (Jay Maynard) writes:
>|Unix is at the far end of the scale: it's actively user-hostile. ...
>|I wouldn't even
>|consider handing a user a raw $ or % prompt, X terminal or not. It's simply
>|too daunting. Unix' terseness is a win for a programmer, but a major loss
>|for a user.
>|...
>|The difference is, as another said, that Unix types are generally programmers,
>|while DOS users are getting real work done.
>
>Read the following in the context of "getting real work done."
>
>First, "real" work is done under MSDOS and Unix with third-party applications,
[ ... ]
and, in the case of MSDOS, with lots of little fingers, and secretaries to
remember what to do when, what to do in which sequence and so on.

Lots of our work that actually brings in the bread has been delegated to this
little fellow by the name of cron sitting right behind the screen. He's
never sick, only has a vacation while the operating system is upgraded,
only goes to the dentist during power cuts.

I have a "competitor" [we're actually friends] who uses 10 PCs. Some of them
for long running jobs like database deduplication. He forked out I don't
know how much for a 386 that does just that - when needed - and is otherwise
idle.

My cost for the same application:
0       4       *       *       0       /home/bin/dedupe

Printing of invoices, reminders, the cutting off of supplies, deliveries
and lots of other things are done by some rather large cron tables here
on two suns, by me and my wife, whereas my friend employs 6 staff [ah, we're
into religion now]. While cron is churning we can actually walk the dog
every afternoon, either through the park or sometimes at the beach.
>
>No, Unix is not (quite) as easy as MSDOS.  Neither is it terribly arcane
>in comparison.  And when real power is needed, it's there...

If you expect to fly a tornado with hang glider controls you might be
in for a similar surprise. And yes, I find msdos rather user unfriendly
and arcane - compared to my solar calculator.

>--
>Dave Burton
>inet: daveb at bach.austin.ibm.com
>uucp: cs.utexas.edu!ibmchs!auschs!nostromo!daveb

klaus
-- 
George Orwell was an Optimist