Return to BSD News archive
#! rnews 2764 bsd
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mira.net.au!vic.news.telstra.net!act.news.telstra.net!psgrain!news.uoregon.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in1.uu.net!news.artisoft.com!usenet
From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc
Subject: Re: How to delete files within C programs
Date: Fri, 10 May 1996 19:24:55 -0700
Organization: Me
Lines: 52
Message-ID: <3193FA77.7BC5F06A@lambert.org>
References: <Oum-El-Kheir.Benkahla-3004961724540001@mac-ugm-3.imag.fr> <4mv7jj$fl7@innocence.interface-business.de> <4mvdoj$6e2@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de>
NNTP-Posting-Host: hecate.artisoft.com
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.01 (X11; I; Linux 1.1.76 i486)
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.misc:22644 comp.unix.bsd.misc:1003
Henry G. Juengst wrote:
] The point at the beginning was, that I think the names 'unlink'
] and 'remove' are meaningless and unclear for beginners. This
] is the case for most identifier in unix/C. Therefore unix and
] C are no good environment for beginners. A good book might
] help, but that does not make it much better (of course, that
] depends on the person).
There is no method of arranging software such that it is intuitive
for a user to interact with it.
Humans and computers do not share common schnelling points.
The Schnelling pint "READ.ME" poses the unbridgable question
"How am I supposed to do that?".
Even the Macintosh has problems "What is 'double click'?".
All systems have learning curves.
I think the negative statements regarding the "Openness" of
"OpenVMS" are pretty much tied to the ability to compile existing
code for the thing and have it run ("Open software platform")
and the ability to run it on commodity hardware ("Open
architecture").
VMS can not build most existing code becaue it strictly
implements one of the few published API standards which it
conforms to: POSIX. The implementation, like that of Windows
NT, is a marketing checkbox, not a real usable engineering
soloution.
VMS does not run on commodity hardware, much as DEC would like
economies of scale to kick in in the production of their
proprietary hardware line to allow them to twist the definition
of "commodity".
Protestations to the contrary will not change these facts, and
thus, from that perspective, VMS is *not* open. You can freely
choose a different perspective, but indoing so, realize that
you will be in the minority.
Regards,
Terry Lambert
terry@lambert.org
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.