Thank you, Dr. Gabriele, for your thoughtful and thorough comments.  I
couldn't agree more that there shouldn't be any difficulties.  My
experience in the recent past is that they usually occur because (1) one
user in the equation doesn't understand how to effectively
transfer/share/translate, or (2) central IT offices choose to enforce a
standard, sometimes for what seem to be good reasons to them, but in effect
appear arbitrary to the endusers.  I'm sure those out there who are
battling the cross platform issue would appreciate any analyses you could
share with the group (or perhaps they can communicate with you directly).
I know that networking is not as big a problem as some represent it to be,
but I am not a networking hardware/software expert.

At the recent SRA Northeast meeting I heard that some Mac users were
confined to their own LANs (or none at all), that they were not getting
support in trying to set up servers for both platforms so they could
communicate with PC-using colleages, or simply had their Macs taken away
and replaced by PCs.  (No PC user told me that his/her PC had been taken
away for a Mac.)  These are not new complaints, despite the era of
web-based communicatons and applications.  Here at Penn we have support for
both platforms.

I also met with one person who agrees with your assessment of Access and
uses FileMaker Pro (amongst other programs) for high-end database tasks.

-- Evelyn Ford
----------------------------------------------
Evelyn J. Ford, Manager, Accounting Operations
Office of Research Support Services
School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
270 Anatomy-Chemistry Building
36th Street and Hamilton Walk
Philadelphia PA 19104-6061
fax 215.573.8802           voice 215.573.1395
xxxxxx@mail.med.upenn.edu

At 06:19 AM 5/6/2000 -0400, EFG wrote:
>   To: Ms. Debby Smith, UT Health Science Center
>     Ms. Evelyn Ford, Univ Penn.
>
> From: Dr. Edward Gabriele, NMRC-00R
>
> Dear Ms. Smith and Ms. Ford
>
> Saw your messages on the resadmin listserv. I am not a computer person per
>se but have extensive experience with them as a research administrator, in
>my academic field, in graphics arts, and in publications. My department has
>no problems at all with Macs and PCs and we work within our wider world
>with sponsors and all departments in both environments. In fact, we have
>done an extremely thorough analysis/discussion with leading engineering
>firms in the USA and have made cross-platform interoperability our
>assumption and regimen. This is really the only mature
>scientific/technological way to go. It respects people's preferences,
>professional assessments etc. We have Macs and PC's interconnected via the
>LAN and they read each other perfectly. Recently, we crossed over from 100%
>PC's to at least 70% MacOS computers for a variety of reasons: versatility,
>robust platform, durability without any need for expensive technical
>assistance, ease of use with PC's etc. Connection to WinNT internet
>services has been far easier with Mac's than with PC's themselves. And we
>were able to test this extensively at other USA locations and also overseas
>in remote geographical locations. No assistance was needed even for the
>least computer knowledgeable among us. To help us we have a superb
>colleague/advisor who is well trained and extremely gifted in this area:
>Mr. Ryan Chapin, Deputy Director for our information technology area. If
>you wish, I can place you in contact with him.
>
>"" With many of our PC IT colleagues around the country, we have found that
>Access is not a mature or robust enough dbase solution at all. It seems
>that Access is moving out of favor with many folks simply because it can
>handle desktop, home or small business needs, but that it cannot handle
>information loads that require industrial strength dbasing solutions.
>FileMaker Pro, both Windows and MacOS versions, is a superb desktop dbase
>for our uses though we would look to an Oracle substructure and a FileMaker
>Pro web interface for the front end. Finally, it doesn't take much to
>remember to use PC formatted diskettes and zip cartridges since Mac's have
>always been able to read them.
>
> In the final analysis, cross-platform interoperability is the way the
>world works and even many PC users are clear (albeit often quietly to
>satisfy IT gurus and supervisors) that the MacOS is unquestionably and
>scientifically the superior technology in all aspects. Therefore, for our
>department, we have found that engaging in Mac vs PC debates is
>counterproductive, often antagonistic/divisive with our colleagues, and
>definitely not in sync with the most efficient and mature horizons. It is
>far more productive and exciting looking for cross-platform knowledge and
>solutions that are user-friendly and creative. That's why I changed the
>topic of your messages to Macs AND And that's as true in the computer
>platform end of things as it is in politics and sociology.
>
> Good luck!
> Dr. Edward F. Gabriele
> Director and Research Ethics Officer
>  Office of Research Administration
>  Naval Medical Research Center
>
> Adjunct Assistant Professor
>  Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics
>  Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
>
>
> Contact Information
> Naval Medical Research Center
> Code 00R
> 503 Robert Grant Ave
> Silver Spring, MD 20910-7500
> Tel: (301) 295-0179
> Fax: (301) 295-5938
> Email: xxxxxx@nmripo.nmri.nnmc.navy.mil
>
>""
>
>    Thu, 4 May 2000 10:43:44 -0400
>   ""<xxxxxx@MAIL.MED.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Macs and PCs
>
>  It's interesting that you found it
> easier to open files on the PC rather than the Mac, since the PC will not
> Are you, like me, finding it much
> more rare to exchange documents any way other than through e-mail or
> For your web docs, are converting
> everything to iPDFs or putting up Mac and PC versions in various Microsoft
> Do you have a lot of folks using WordPerfect, or is that
>  -- Evelyn
>
> At 07:47 AM 5/4/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>>Our campus has a mix of Macs and PCs; so my office has at least one of each
>>so that we can make forms, etc. available to folks regardless of the type of
>>equipment they have.
>>
>>I have found that it's much easier to receive and actually open and read
>>different types of files, attachments, etc. on a PC as opposed to the Mac I
>>(although I found the Mac easier to use overall).
>>
>>It's probably possible to share files across platforms, but since we have so
>>many folks who are not too familiar with all of that (and usually running
>>short of time), we try to keep both going to make for easier access for
>> We're also trying to
>>put everything on the web to make for easy access for our folks at remote
>>locations.
>>
>>Good luck!
>>
>>Debbie Smith
>>UT Health Science Center
>>Memphis
>>xxxxxx@utmem.edu
>
>
>
>    Thu, 4 May 2000 09:27:01 -0400
>   ""<xxxxxx@MAIL.MED.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject: Macs and PCs
>
> I've been trying to search the list archives for any recent discussions
> about Macs vs. PCs, but I keep getting a server error -- not a good sign.
>
> I'm updating my presentation for SRA-NE and thought it would be a good idea
> Please pass along to me any
> problems (or even how well things are going) with sharing Macs and PCs.
> I'm looking mostly at the department/end-user level rather than at
> networking issues, but those are important to know about as well.
>
> Thanks, as always.
>
> -- Evelyn Ford

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