|
Better known to most people as MC, I'm a freelance writer and
computer consultant. I've got a wide range of experience with
computers, having been using them daily for the last 20 years. For the
past 8 years I've worked for a variety of companies specializing in
network support for mixed platform networks. The requirement to
integrate the three main platforms, Windows, Unix and MacOS, is
inevitable in these modern times. Ensuring they work effectively -
sharing resources and cooperating with each other where necessary is
not an easy task.
Beyond the three main OS I also work with the BeOS, hence my first
book, BeOS: Porting Unix
Applications. This covers the use of BeOS as a Unix, or more
specially, POSIX, platform if you like a client oriented OS rather
than the server oriented Unix.
When not managing a network of some sort, programming is the
preferred form of recreation. A specialist in Perl and Unix C, along with more
than a passing interest in Python, C++, Modula-2, Pascal, Java,
Javascript, and of course shellscript, preferably using BASH if it's
available.
This range of experience, and my apparent ability to explain
complex technical details to people in a way they can easily
understand, that lead to my book writing first part time, and now full
time working exclusively from home. You can get more information on
what and where I write over in the projects
section.
Despite rumours to contrary, I dont have any allegiance to any
particular OS or programming language. Instead I'm of the view that
each OS and language has it's own advantages and merits. If I was to
list the different OS and what I use them for, the list would look
something like this:
- Unix
- Programming, network applications and text processing.
- It's hard to beat shellscript as a quick and dirty solution to all
sorts of problems - I can write a script to change file names from
upper case to lower case in less than 10 seconds. I can create a
compressed, structured archive to post up on a web site in minutes.
- It's also hard to beat the Unix flexibility for building and
designing network applications. This especially true when it comes to
web site development where writing a quick C, Shell or Perl CGI
application is simply case of writing a few lines of code!
- Windows
- Gaming, Business Applications, Internet Browsing, ermmm did I mention gaming?
- PC's have gaming licked. The range of gaming software, and related
gaming hardware exceeds that available on any other gaming
platform. Graphics cards like the Voodoo2 card from 3Dfx enhance the experience, and a good
3D sound system makes games like Unreal too real.
- If you want to find a business application for a particular
problem, chances are it'll be on windows. Project management,
accounting and even database applications are freely and readily
available on the Windows platform. They may not necessarily be the
best available, but Windows offer the widest choice.
- More internet software is available on the Windows platform than
any other. This has as much to do with the biggest players in the
market (take Microsoft and Netscape for example) as it does with
the size of the Windows market generally. This means that browsing a
web site with specialist plug-ins or requirements is almost guaranteed
on the PC platform.
- If you want some examples of good games for the PC, visit the GameSpot site. If you want to see
my favourite PC compatible game then visit Bungie and check out Myth and the new
MythII.
- MacOS
- Writing, graphics/design, gaming
- Despite the fact that there are more copies of Office 97 out there
than there are Office 98 for the Mac, more professional writers choose
MacOS as their writing platform, and in that list I include
myself. I've tried writing on the PC, it's possible, certainly. Heck,
I've even written an entire chapter on a PC before now. Unfortunately,
compared to the Mac, it seems clumsy, slow, and unnecessarily blurred
on screen. Two of my books have been written exclusively on a Mac, and
I dont see this situation changing for some forseeable period.
- I worked at a design agency for four years and in all that time
nothing has convinced me that the Mac can be beaten as a design
platform. Once again, it comes down to ease of use. Graphics on a PC
feels clumsy and the whole interface seems designed to slow you down
and complicate things instead of ensuring that you can get your ideas
out on paper (screen?).
- Despite the PC platforms game range, some of my favourite
(including *the* favourite) games are only available on the Mac. In
recent years, and even recent months the MacOS has come leaps and
bounds down the gaming road. With the recent release of Voodoo2 boards
the Mac becomes a serious gaming machine for serious users, and with
products like Unreal and MythII being simultaneously
released on the Mac and Windows platforms the Mac looks here to stay.
Finally, before anybody asks, I have a number of machines that
enable me to run MacOS, Windows 95/NT, Linux, Solaris, BeOS (PPC and
Intel) and EPOC32 on my Psion handheld!
Please feel free to mail me if you
have any comments or queries
|
