Re: Macs vs. PCs: truce

[Gabriel Austin <zbb@PANIX.COM>]

I agree with our moderator's call that discussions should be "list
specific". As computers have become a large part of the tools of our
trade,  a discussion of experience in their use seems important to me. I
note some of the problems which have raised questions in my mind:
- is the reliance on "icons" in the picture programs a reversion to
heiroglyphs? why are the picture programs so much slower than the word
programs? will texts in computers (or CDROMs) be like texts on microfilm,
a descendant of scrolls, on which the codex form was a great advance?
We have heard of using "keywords" to "gopher" for information. Were not
the problems of "keywords" threshed out in our profession some centuries
ago? why does the computerese sould so much like pentagonese when
perfectly normal English is available?
        I make no claims to being any kind of expert on computers. I am
also not an expert shoemaker. But I do know when the shoe is not a good
fit, and not to wear sandals in a snowstorm. Thus far what I have
read in this discussion bears out my sense that the picture programs are
inadequate to our professional purposes. If Mr. Thompson's children were
put off by a DOS program, is it because they had become used to picture
explanations, rather than having to learn the words of an instruction?
(He might ask a reference librarian about the serious reasons why a 5
minute delay is more than a nuisance. It's a matter of checking out the stray -
possibly useful, possibly not - references.
        If anyone can recommend a good book in normal English (the way doctors
write home medical guides) on computers in general (not products on
offer), I would be obliged.