Random Musings

Windows and Mac

I have been playing with a Mac after years of writing software for the pc.

So far I am not overly impressed with the Mac's reputation for easier use. As they say, it's all in the details. There are 2 things that I didn't know to value on Windows until I had lost them in the Mac.

First Windows has both a delete key and a backspace. So you can delete the next key from the cursor with the delete key, or the previous key with the backspace. The Mac only has a delete key that acts as a backspace. So if the cursor is positions at the beginning of a group of characters you'd like to delete you have to grab the mouse, highlight and delete, or position the cursor to the end and delete backing up or use 2 hands and press the "fn" and delete keys.

The second is that windows support clicking into a window and highlighting at the same time. In the Mac, and incidently also in Firefox within Windows, if you have focus in one window and you want to highlight something in another window you first have to click in the target window to give it "focus" and then you can highlight. In windows the you don't have to click twice.

You might say these are picayune items. But if you work on the computer as much as I do, keystrokes count.

posted by David Tyme @ 8:59 PM