Apple Logic Pro /LogicExpress Discussion

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 GAmoore@... wrote:

> I am listening to an hour radio interview with Steve Bass, the author of the 
> best selling book "PC Annoyances" now in 2nd edition. The first thing he says 
> is he is already working on a new edition with plenty of new PC annoyances, 
> and even Bill Gates has acknowledged many of his issues. Then the next thing is 
> the only way to avoid most of these annoyances is to get a Macintosh and that 
> Macs do not suffer from most of the typical PC annoyances.... kind of 
> surprising coming from a PC guru.

This is always an interesting topic of debate...not the whole mac vs. PC 
thing, but more of "why doesn't the mac have these problems?"

One theory is just the economy of scale - there's a zillion more PC 
programs out there than Mac programs, and with a population that alrge 
you're bound to have more interaction problems.

Another is a theory of control: from the beginning, apple as kept very 
tight control over hardware, software APIs, etc...this rigorous 
enforcement may be a plague to developers but could be a boon to users, 
since there's nobody breaking the rules to do something cool.  

And there are the UI issues...the Mac GUI gets a lot of flak from PC 
people for having one menu bar at the top, having a one-button mouse, etc 
etc...but most of these decisions were made consciously.  The single menu 
bar is designed in accordance with Fitts' Law - you've essentially got 
infite space to move the mouse to at the top of the screen - you don't 
have to worry about overshooting your menu.  One button mice don't require 
the kind of muscle-memory as multibuttons, etc...  So all other things 
being equal, the mac may just give the impression of being less annoying 
because of a few small usability touches.

There are plenty of other hypotehses, I'm sure.

_______________________________________________________
Eric Oehler / wonko@... / www.nulldevice.com
Synthetic music for synthetic people.

--- In Logic_Cafe@yahoogroups.com, wonko@n... wrote:
> On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 GAmoore@a... wrote:
> 
> > I am listening to an hour radio interview with Steve Bass, the 
author of the 
> > best selling book "PC Annoyances" now in 2nd edition. The first 
thing he says 
> > is he is already working on a new edition with plenty of new PC 
annoyances, 
> > and even Bill Gates has acknowledged many of his issues. Then the 
next thing is 
> > the only way to avoid most of these annoyances is to get a 
Macintosh and that 
> > Macs do not suffer from most of the typical PC annoyances.... 
kind of 
> > surprising coming from a PC guru.
> 
> This is always an interesting topic of debate...not the whole mac 
vs. PC 
> thing, but more of "why doesn't the mac have these problems?"
> 
> One theory is just the economy of scale - there's a zillion more PC 
> programs out there than Mac programs, and with a population that 
alrge 
> you're bound to have more interaction problems.
> 
> Another is a theory of control: from the beginning, apple as kept 
very 
> tight control over hardware, software APIs, etc...this rigorous 
> enforcement may be a plague to developers but could be a boon to 
users, 
> since there's nobody breaking the rules to do something cool.  
> 
> And there are the UI issues...the Mac GUI gets a lot of flak from 
PC 
> people for having one menu bar at the top, having a one-button 
mouse, etc 
> etc...but most of these decisions were made consciously.  The 
single menu 
> bar is designed in accordance with Fitts' Law - you've essentially 
got 
> infite space to move the mouse to at the top of the screen - you 
don't 
> have to worry about overshooting your menu.  One button mice don't 
require 
> the kind of muscle-memory as multibuttons, etc...  So all other 
things 
> being equal, the mac may just give the impression of being less 
annoying 
> because of a few small usability touches.
> 
> There are plenty of other hypotehses, I'm sure.
> 
> _______________________________________________________
> Eric Oehler / wonko@n... / www.nulldevice.com
> Synthetic music for synthetic people.


I have quite a few PC's in the house here and each has specific 
purposes. My observation over time leans towards the idea that lots 
of programs can create confusion and also some software just isn't 
any good. If the program is written well, the computer can become 
just about anything, but not everything all at once. 
gary

--- In Logic_Cafe@yahoogroups.com, GAmoore@a... wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 3/16/05 5:00:01 AM, gswerner2002@y... writes:
> 
> > > 
> 
> I am kind of doing that with my macs. I only put demo-ware and 
share-ware on 
> my ibook along with email. Then on my music mac, i have dual 
internal drives, 
> and one system is only for music and nothing else. on the other i 
put 
> photoshop and non-music but non-shareware non-demo stuff. 
> 
> I have come to the conclusion that Apple can not make a reliable 
music 
> computer. I removed some cheap ram and bought Geil's special "apple 
edition" ram. I 
> repair permissions sometimes multiple times per day, etc. But I 
still get app 
> crashes.

I have Logic installed in my studio and have only installed higher 
lever software applications on my personal PC. They both work well 
with intelligent software installed. 

I have a few others with specific purposes intended, so the 
applications installed in them is also very intentional and avoiding 
junk programming, keeping in mind that 2 programs may conflict in the 
way they want a certain system file to read. 
Being experienced with the interaction of software to operating 
system is the way I decide about any program. If it looks funny to me 
in any way at all, I get rid of it. I've spent lots of time undoing 
the damage bad programs can cause in about a bleep of a second.