Tips for installing windows and freeBSD both.. anyone??

[Chad Perrin]

On Sat, Nov 13, 2010 at 10:47:05AM -0600, Robert Bonomi wrote:
> > Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2010 18:19:34 -0700
> > From: Chad Perrin <perrin at apotheon.com>
> > Subject: Re: Tips for installing windows and freeBSD both.. anyone??
> >
> > =2E . . and it is shortly after that point that things get very specific,
> > and non-general.
> 
> Not to mention the fact that you _cannot_ specify anything _but_ a 'file'
> as the source of the data to be handled.  Want to read it from a mag tape?
> Can't do it.  Want to read directly from a serial port?  =Can't= do it.  
> Want to read directly from the keyboard?  *Can't*  do it.  Want to get the
> input directly from another program, _without_ using an intermediate file?
> CANT' do it.  The GUI "open" dialog doesn't allow for that kind of flexibility.
> 
> In a pure GUI environment, if there =isn't= an _existing_ button/menu-item/
> selection-list action for it, you _cannot_ do the operation.  
> 
> This is, not incidentally, why _pure_ GUI environments have gone the way of
> the dodo bird, except for some fixed-scope production uses.
> 
> EVERYBODY _today_ realizes a GUI _alone_ is 'inadequate' for 'general purpose'
> use, and proivdes -- at a mnimum, an escape to a command-line, where you can
> do 'anything'.  e.g. the MS Windows "run" item on the start menu.

I wish it was that simple.  Unfortunately, since much of the MS Windows
environment was designed *solely* with the GUI in mind, there's a lot of
stuff that is not very doable with the run dialog, cmd.exe, command.exe,
PowerShell, or even Ypsilon (which, shockingly, is more capable in many
ways than PowerShell, even though it's only meant to be a Scheme REPL).

-- 
Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ]
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