It's funny to me, in more than one way, to see everyone coming to the Mac platform. I've been using it for almost as long as I can remember.
Before Mac OS X, I was using an old, decrepit, silly toy operating system. And now I am an early adopter, a sage being with incredible insight into this new wonder that is Mac OS X.
Of course, the truth is that Mac OS X is not Mac OS, that it is a new operating system, that NeXT users were the real early adopters (well, OK, Mac users were the early adopters of most of the UI and some of the API, but NeXT users had the rest), and that it's pretty new for everyone. But still, I slide fairly comfortably (if not entirely willingly) into the world of Mac OS X, knowing much about AppleScript and Apple events, what apps are available, platform-specific differences, etc. So while Mac OS X is new, it's very familiar, and Apple has done a tremendous job (if a slow one) of making Mac OS X feel like home.
So it's pretty funny to me to see all these Perl programmers, many formerly hating Macs, clamoring to the Mac platform, learning about the little things, and falling in love like I did many years ago. It's also a bit disturbing, because I used to be "The Mac Guy" in the Perl world, and I am that no longer (or at most, not for long ;-). But that's good, because the more's the merrier, and it means less work for me to get the tools I want (I'm looking at you, Elian).
Hey, go point that gaze elsewhere, boyo! I've been doing macs for ages.But that's good, because the more's the merrier, and it means less work for me to get the tools I want (I'm looking at you, Elian).
Ernie's here at TPC. I'm going to go try and convince him to use Parrot as the runtime engine for the next version of AppleScript. That should be fun...
Re:Me? Why me?
pudge on 2002-07-23T21:35:41
I didn't mean to include you in the "new Mac users", but in the "doing stuff for Macs that means less work for me.":-)
Macs were for people who didn't know better, or so I thought. I watched the launch of OSX and thought it was pretty. I read buzzwords like Mach and Darwin and references to NeXT and I was happily puzzled. I used a NeXT slab in college in a Calculus class to run Mathematica, so I knew what it could do.
But it wasn't until I started reading stories on places like slashdot (around the time of the 10.1 release) about people who were "Switching" before Apple ever thought to make that a buzzword. Then, a friend of mine, the last person I'd ever expect to do so, bought a TiBook.
I'm lucky to live in a town with an Apple store. So I sauntered in and played with one of the new iMacs. I was absolutely blown away by the interface. So I dug more. It's unix? I had just left Windows for a laptop running Gentoo Linux and KDE3, but wasn't satisfied. I started finding reasons to find places that sold Macs so I could play. I was hooked. I ended up with an iBook 700 14" with a combo drive.
Quite simply, this is the most useful computer I've ever used, bar none. I'll admit, I feel guilty about the shit that people like me gave original mac users. I still think MacOS 9 and before has nothing to offer me, but I continue to be astounded by X.
Guys like you are still needed, however. You've already answered two big questions for me, and I'm sure that there will be more.
