> It is mind boggling, to what trouble US engineers go
> to preserve these bizarre habits appentently without ever thinking were
> they came from or whether they are practical. Exactly the same happens
> with the metric system, A4 paper, and all the other improvements and
> modernized conventions that the rest of the world has in the mean time
> happily adopted.
I should point out that all of these antiques are eminently practical, in
that computers that do not provide them will be rejected by customers. It
isn't the engineers that perpetuate them, but rather our customers.
Mac OS supports A4 paper, 24-hour time, and metric units, even on US
systems. It's up to the customer to use them if they want to, but we
obviously have to support the vast majority of US customers who want the old
stuff.
If you want to argue with someone, take it up with the US Congress, which
for decades has repeatedly defeated attempts at metric reform.
Deborah Goldsmith
Manager, International Toolbox Group
Apple Computer, Inc.
goldsmith@apple.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jul 10 2001 - 17:20:47 EDT