>
> I realise that but what if I do not want to use all interupts. Why would I
> want to enable them all???

You've misinterpreted what she's saying. When the GIE is off, all interrupts
are disabled. However when the GIE is on, then any interrupts that have been
enabled by setting the individual interrupt enable flags are then turned on.
Think of GIE as the interrupt mask in other architectures, where all interrupts
are disabled when it is off but interrupts are allowed to happen if it is on.
You still have to enable the individual interrupts also.

BAJ