OT: Why it is better to pretend you know nothing about computers

Hear! Hear!

In fairness to the poor bloody programmer, though, it's usually management that won't allow time or resources (or training) to do these things right. It's a pity that Microsoft don't have some testing service that an app has to pass through before qualifying for a Windows logo ... no, maybe it isn't, I can think of SO many ways they could abuse that power.

I discovered only last week that the reason I couldn't scan from my wife's scanner to my laptop is that HP's scanner drivers (for the fairly recent Officejet 6300, if you're interested) don't work from a non-Administrative account. Of course, it doesn't SAY that, it just pops up an fatal error and suggests that you reinstall.

They don't see them as bugs. "Doesn't work if you don't use an administrator account? Well don't do that!". They need taking out and educating with extreme prejudice.

Cheers, Daniel.

Reply to
Daniel James
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IIRC it was one of the requirements to be able to say "Windows compatible".

Reply to
Clive George

So what you are saying is that it's all _Apple's_ fault that Windows is apparently engineered so badly ...

Reply to
Adrian C

The Wikipedia entry for PC-DOS says : "As a result of the antitrust agreement with IBM and the Department of Justice, IBM had to outsource the bulk of the computer components to outside companies. Microsoft was the successful applicant for the operating system. When they showed IBM their acquisition Q-DOS, it inspired IBM to write its own DOS, and back license it to Microsoft."

Does this need correcting?

I worked for IBM and I used an internal DOS written by Jack Gersbach. It was streets ahead of MS-DOS.

Reply to
Bob Martin

You might laugh. A friend borrowed a Windows laptop a while ago. Phoned me close to tears, couldn't work out how to switch it off.

Rob

Reply to
Rob

Oh yes it will! Try it one day, I just did, and it allowed me to open a .doc in two editors.

Hint: not all editors are Microsoft editors.

MBQ

Reply to
Man at B&Q

No it doesn't.

MBQ

Reply to
Man at B&Q

It does in a properly written application, anyone can ignore the return codes and bodge things. It just falls apart later. Which editors are you talking about and which windows?

Reply to
dennis

Microsoft fixed the non-network file operations by bringing disk caching back in Vista SP1. XP->Win7 network file transfers are still broken by design, although Win7->Win7 is probably fine.

I can't say that I've detected any fundamental differences between Win7 and Vista SP2, although there was a change to the video driver model that should help a lot with badly-behaved applications. Win7 is still awful on a netbook, while it's fine on a PC with decent hardware.

Reply to
John Jordan

More fool you for using that email program.

Unless it's an excel file. Or a pdf. And so on ...

Reply to
Tim Streater

How about if it didn't have the restriction in the first place? That would be even more helpful.

Reply to
Tim Streater

Thats still a lot of Normal users;!..

Umm .. What definition BTW?..

Reply to
tony sayer

In article , Tim Streater scribeth thus

I am in case you haven't noticed;;..

On which system is this then?..

Reply to
tony sayer

OS X 10.6.4

Reply to
Tim Streater

Lots use it, its not a problem while yours appears to be.

Irrelevant just substitute the correct application.

Reply to
dennis

All of which have an unnecessary send-to-email button, do they?

Reply to
Tim Streater

It sounds not quite right based on what I have read. Something like:

formatting link
much closer.

Reply to
John Rumm

File locking is done by the OS where the files located rather than the application. IIRC the application requests it wants to open the file RW. That results in exclusive write access to the file (file lock).

Some windows applications do check & warn for a modified file even if they have that file open exclusively. It's possible to modify a locked file (say when it resides on a samba server).

Reply to
Dean

Or on NFS as that has no locking at all. It uses stateless R/W requests. If you are lucky the application will create a lockfile so other applications can know the file is in use. If you are unlucky you have no idea what the file contains after a write unless you read it again and then you still don't know what it contains. Another of those quirky "unix" things.

Reply to
dennis

snipped-for-privacy@d17g2000yqm.googlegroups.com...

XP Pro 64 bit

Wordpad, notepad, PSPad can all open the same file and write to it. PSPad will tell you if the file has been changed by some other app.

MBQ

Reply to
Man at B&Q

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