Re: Tilde in Program Files directory; ease of use

[cld@xxxxxxxx (Carl Distefano)]

Reply to note from Patricia M Godfrey  Wed, 13
Mar 2002 21:54:16 -0500

Patricia:

> Once I fixed the hyphenation default, so that I could type a
> tilde on the command line, ...

No need to change the default to put a tilde on the command line.
Just assign a *3-byte* tilde to a key; it puts the 1-byte tilde both
on the CMline and in text.

> ...I could do a directory of any other folder with a tilde in
> the short name. But neither XyWrite for DOS nor XyWin can read
> C:\PROGRA~1 correctly. If you type DIR c:\PROGRA~1 on the command
> line, you get a "listing"--with no files listed. If you do
> DIR C:\PROGRA~1\*.* ... I get "File not found."

Yes, I see that with Xy4 running under NT. But if I CD to \PROGRA~1
and then issue DIR, I get a real dir listing. So it's not exactly
"unreadable to XyWrite". But...

All of this is collateral to your main point, which bears repeating:
There is no good reason to situate Xy in d:\"Program Files" or any
other non-8.3 directory, and more than one good reason not to. So
don't do it.

> I don't think we can ever expect a computer ("logic machine,"
> or "logicker" would be a better name) to be as easy to use as a
> car or a wshing machine, or even a sewing machine. They are all
> one-task machines, or at most do a couple of things. A computer
> system (i.e., PC, printer, modem) can replace a typewriter, a
> printing press, a telegraph, a video-editing machine, even a
> musical instrument.... One simply has to know something about
> the inner workings of anything that can do so many different
> things if one is to get the most out of it. Furthermore, only
> those who understand both the machine and the task it is trying
> to do will be able to find the best ways of doing the task. ...
> In some cases--the relational database model leaps to mind, as
> do electonic style sheets--the computer lets us do things that
> we never dreamed of before. People who say, "what's the least I
> need to know to use this thing?" will never find out those new
> things.

Amen! (You're preaching to the choir as far as I'm concerned -- but
what an eloquent preacher you are!)

--
Carl Distefano
cld@xxxxxxxx
http://users.datarealm.com/xywwweb/