Re: Another question

[nsivin@xxxxxxxx (Nathan Sivin)]

Re Harmon's message about multitasking:

I absolutely agree that if I were running 3 computers, downloading enormous
files, etc., I would be grateful for multitasking. But as for finding files,
cutting & pasting, I do the second inside XyWrite, which I have highly
customized and macroized to do such things efficiently. On the machine I use,
shelling to DOS is instant, leaves me with 624K at the
DOS prompt, and I have an extremely fast and efficient utility. The whole
process takes a fraction of the time using the Norton Desktop Quickfind, or any
other windows file find utility I have tried. It is precisely the contrast
between instant response in DOS and sludge in Windows that I use the latter for
the few things I can't do in the former. There is practically nothing I do in
DOS that took as long as loading Quattro Pro 5 for Windows. Drag-&-drop
resizing etc. are cute, but since Quattro Pro 1 for DOS does everything I want
to do, I just got rid of the Windows version.

-- Nathan Sivin
History and Sociology of Science
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia PA 19104-3325