[comp.sys.mac] Mac of the 90's

perez@andromeda.rutgers.edu.rutgers.edu (Willie Perez) (12/09/89)

First, System 7.0 (or OS 7 as you would probably call it) will support 
68000 based machines as well.  Why should they be left out, the Plus and SE
are the most popular Macs on the market!  So they don't have a Paged
Memory Management Unit, they shouldn't be left out.

Talking about the 90's, PostScript was the 80's!  I hate to say it but Steve
Jobs made mistake #1 with his NeXT.  It all depends on PostScript.
Apple is working on mathematical descriptions for fonts that no longer require
postscript for high quality printed fonts.  This will dramatically enhance
non PostScript printing effectively and lessen the need for a file for each
font size to be installed in the system.  Apple has made a deal with Microsoft
so they can license this technology for the PC's.  If you notice, Adobe,
creaters of PostScript, have cashed in on this deal and created their own 
version of outline (not PS) fonts to compete with Apple's system 7.0.

System 7.0 WILL support virtual memory.  Some company has their own version out
also to make money until 7.0 is released.  The Mac has Multifinder which is
multi-tasing (OK not true multitasking) and has been doing so, will continue
to do so and will be the standard for system 7.0

Finally, and I'm not being nasty here, but I resent System 7.0 being referred
to as OS 7.  The Mac isn't an IBM-PC or compatible.  PC jargon should be
reserved for it.
Willi

All opinions are MINE!

folta@tove.umd.edu (Wayne Folta) (12/09/89)

In article <Dec.8.18.09.58.1989.6188@galaxy.rutgers.edu> perez@andromeda (Willie Perez) writes:
>Talking about the 90's, PostScript was the 80's!  I hate to say it but Steve
>Jobs made mistake #1 with his NeXT.  It all depends on PostScript.

I worry about QuickDraw.  One nice thing about PostScript is that it is
universal.  I can (with a little difficulty) generate PostScript on my Mac,
ship it across a 7-bit communications path--it is ASCII, not binary--and
print it on any of dozens of different systems.  QuickDraw will never do
that.

Another thing I really like about PostScript is that, being ASCII, I can
edit a graphics file to do things that even the most expensive drawing
programs cannot do.  QuickDraw, being binary, wouldn't gove me a chance,
even with ResEdit.
--


Wayne Folta          (folta@cs.umd.edu  128.8.128.8)

ngg@bridge2.ESD.3Com.COM (Norman Goodger) (12/12/89)

In article <21189@mimsy.umd.edu> folta@tove.umd.edu (Wayne Folta) writes:
>>Jobs made mistake #1 with his NeXT.  It all depends on PostScript.
>I worry about QuickDraw.  One nice thing about PostScript is that it is
>universal.  I can (with a little difficulty) generate PostScript on my Mac,
>ship it across a 7-bit communications path--it is ASCII, not binary--and
>print it on any of dozens of different systems.  QuickDraw will never do
>that.
>Another thing I really like about PostScript is that, being ASCII, I can
>edit a graphics file to do things that even the most expensive drawing
>programs cannot do.  QuickDraw, being binary, wouldn't gove me a chance,
>even with ResEdit.

The thing that bothers me is that Posscript is ascii, this makes its
files ridiculously large. The software that interprets it is slower
than molassses because it has to parse that ascii and convert it to
something that can actually be drawn. This is why newer Postscript clone
printers are getting faster. They are eliminating these problems. Give
me QuickDraw any day...




---

-- 
Norm Goodger				SysOp - MacInfo BBS @415-795-8862
3Com Corp.				Co-SysOp FreeSoft RT - GEnie.
Enterprise Systems Division             (I disclaim anything and everything)
UUCP: {3comvax,auspex,sun}!bridge2!ngg  Internet: ngg@bridge2.ESD.3Com.COM

chari@nueces.cactus.org (Chris Whatley) (12/13/89)

ngg@bridge2.ESD.3Com.COM (Norman Goodger) writes:

>In article <21189@mimsy.umd.edu> folta@tove.umd.edu (Wayne Folta) writes:
>>>Jobs made mistake #1 with his NeXT.  It all depends on PostScript.
>>I worry about QuickDraw.  One nice thing about PostScript is that it is
>>universal.  I can (with a little difficulty) generate PostScript on my Mac,
>>ship it across a 7-bit communications path--it is ASCII, not binary--and
>>print it on any of dozens of different systems.  QuickDraw will never do
>>that.
>>Another thing I really like about PostScript is that, being ASCII, I can
>>edit a graphics file to do things that even the most expensive drawing
>>programs cannot do.  QuickDraw, being binary, wouldn't gove me a chance,
>>even with ResEdit.

>The thing that bothers me is that Posscript is ascii, this makes its
>files ridiculously large. The software that interprets it is slower
>than molassses because it has to parse that ascii and convert it to
>something that can actually be drawn. This is why newer Postscript clone
>printers are getting faster. They are eliminating these problems. Give
>me QuickDraw any day...

Well, NeXT's use tokenized postscript meaning that those huge ascii
files are turned into little bitty files that a quickly gobbled up by
the interpreter. This is compiled into the application. If you want,
you can, of course, still give it the full PS text of your program.

Another incredibly important aspect of using postscript is that when
NeXT comes out with their color board, it can be a simple co-processor
board to which you send those little bitty tokenized postscript
streams for interpretation over the NeXTBus to the DPS server running
on whatever they choose to use. This is quite unlike that Mac where
bitmaps clog up the bus bandwidth and where color boards have to patch
the control program (o.k. OS) to do any acceleration.


-- 
Chris Whatley
Work: chari@pelican.ma.utexas.edu (NeXT Mail)		(512/471-7711 ext 123)
Play: chari@nueces.cactus.org (NeXT Mail)		(512/499-0475)
Also: chari@emx.utexas.edu