jmm@eci386.uucp (John Macdonald) (02/27/90)
Beware of using the TappyType cdev in a floppy-only system.
I had the following sequence occur:
1 - inserted new disk, asked for two-sided initialize, agreed to erase
2 - started typing the name to be used for the new disk
3 - disk was ejected, system disk was requested, TappyType started
making its typing noises
4 - the system disk was reformatted without an opportunity to reinsert
the new disk that was supposed to be the one that was formatted
5 - my wife has become disillusioned with the Mac as an easy and safe
to use computer (she was trying to format the disk so that she
could make a second copy of her file, the first was on the system
disk)
People at Apple: could you add a check in the formatting code to ensure
that nothing has caused an eject during the format dialog sequence just
before you actually do the format? (Off hand, I can accept the explanation
that TappyType might not follow Apple guidelines; but this is something
that Apple ought to do for safety's sake anyhow.)
I have not put TappyType on my recreated system disk - while it is cute
to get the typewriter sound, it is just to dangerous. I have no confidence
that this is the only place that will break when a system resource has to
be acquired just to "display text".
I apologize to the author of TappyType for not sending this message to
him - I don't have his/her name and address handy at present.
--
Algol 60 was an improvment on most | John Macdonald
of its successors - C.A.R. Hoare | jmm@eci386