If Macs are soooo easy then

[Larry Beach]

At 11:43 AM 12/31/96 -0600, you wrote:
>At 01:22 PM 12/31/96 -0500, you wrote:
>...
>>A recent editorial on KYW newsradio puts it well I think.

>>Another interesting blurb I picked up on a mailing list that clarifies the
>>issue of the differences between ease of use that still exist between the
>>Mac vs. Windows 95. (The Phaser IIPX is a color laser printer from
>>Techtronics.)
>>
>>"Here is an actual email message from a mixed Mac/PC shop (a major
>>software developer) listing the steps needed to use a new color printer.
>>Save it for the next time someone says Windows is "just like a Mac!"
>>Names have been changed to protect the guilty. Apply liberally to the
>>infested area of your organization. :)"
>>
>>xxxxxxxxx
>>
>>From: xxxxxx xxxxxx
>>Subject: Phaser on line
>>To: xxxxxxxxxx
>>
>>The Phaser II PX is now on line and accessible from both the MAC and the
>>PC. The Drivers are in Y:\AXXXX\DRIVER\PHASER. To use the printer do the
>>following.
>>
>>MAC System 7
>>
>>1. Just select the printer in the Chooser and print.
>>
>>Windows
>>
>>1. Replace the Capture command for LPT3 in you startnet.bat file with the
>>following. Capture l=3 q=PHASER_II s=VCSLIB a nob NT
>>2. Reboot you computer
>>3. Run startnet
>>4. Start windows
>>5. Double click on the Control Panel icon
>>6. Double click on the Printers icon in the Control Panel dialog box
>>7. Click on the Add Printers button.
>>8. Select the Apple LaserWriter II NT/NTX PostScript Printer
>>9. Double Click Install
>>10. When the use current or new driver prompt comes up Click on Current
>>11. Click the Configure button
>>12. Select LPT3: for the printer port
>>13. Click on the Setup button
>>14. Click on the Add Printers button
>>15. Type in the path Y:\ALDUS\DRIVERS\PHASER\WINDOWS in the path prompt.
>>16. Select Tektronix Phaser II PX printer
>>17. Click on the Add button to add the printer
>>18. Click the Done button
>>19. Click OK in the add printers dialog box
>>20. Click OK in the configure dialog box
>>21. Click Active in the Printers dialog box
>>22. Click OK in the printers dialog box
>>
>>If you have any questions just drop me a note or go by my office.
>>
>>Thanks
>>
>>xxxxxxxxx
>>
....
>Then how come it took 3 months and over twenty hours for me to get my Mac
>2300 on line. And it is slow slow slow when you type????
>
>
>Regards,
>Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.M.T., R.P.T.
>"Tuner for the Centre of the Arts"
>drose@dlcwest.com
>3004 Grant Rd.
>REGINA, SK
>S4S 5G7
>306-352-3620 or 1-888-29t-uner



Interesting.  Any of the Windows software (and I am talking about the
now-almost-archaic Windows 3.1) I have installed has not been nearly so
involved as was just described for Phaser IIPX software.  I applaud Don for
getting his Mac up and running, period.  I have been born and raised on IBM,
in the days before Windows, so I am very comfortable with the directory-tree
system for storing files, as it is laid out in DOS.  For this reason, I have
become very lost in the Macintosh system when I have had to use it.  It took
me over an hour to find the Apple File Exchange programs once in the Mac
environment.  Sometimes, on the IBM system, I still return to DOS to do
these functions (finding files, mass deletion, moving of files, etc.)
because Windows and Macintosh environments are less intuitive and organised
for those operations.  As for file installations on IBM, if the software
writer has done his job to make his program user-friendly, it usually
requires three steps:
                1) click on File in the Program Manager
                2) click on Run in the produced menu
                3) type a:install
and everything is done for you.  I'm sorry if this is somewhat rambly, but I
have found that any software that is difficult to set up is usually the
fault of the software, and not the machine.  Even with my older machine, I
have not yet encountered anything unusually difficult to set up.  So for any
piano technicians thinking of purchasing a Mac or IBM, don't base your
decision completely on the installation of the Phaser IIPX software.

Larry Beach
Associate PT
Vancouver BC
Canada