I'm using one of the new-fangled "Office" apps so it looks like one
document from the editing point of view -- with lots of things embedded
in it.
Scenario #1
-----------
Finished touching up todays report.
"Save As" blahblah.doc, a flat file because the office apps work this way.
Open mailer. "Attach File", works ok. All is well, Linux is wonderful.
But... "Save As" took 2 minutes after a 1 word change. To store my 57
12Mbyte photos.
[or (b) "Quick Save" sparse files a la Word and a lot of wasted space.
or (c) a better app-level filesystem in a file. Learn from database
vendors.]
Scenario #2
-----------
Finished touching up todays report.
"Save As" blahblah.doc
blahblah.doc is a directory because folks think a file is too slow for
the hugeness and complexity of my report.
Open mailer. "Attach File" blahblah.doc. "Attachment error: Is a
directory". (Switching mailers isn't an option: too many critical
features in use daily).
Bum. Guess I have to learn how to use that stoopid shell!
(Assume training in shell commands such as cd and ls).
"man tar".
Oh fuck.
1a. Email friend.
1b. Linux sucks! Boss is right, Word is easy.
1c. "tar cvf" is easy really. (Personally I always cvvpSfz but explain
that to a newbie :-)
Practical reality
-----------------
Everyone will use flat files for "compound documents" anyway, web pages
will live in single directories containing 100s of files like they
always have, books will be written as separate chapters, and every
novice who uses LaTeX will ignore the 300 files that populate their home
directory. And these threads are flogging a very dead horse...
Best stop now before my "crap rating" exceeds Alan's ;-)
-- Jamie
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