[comp.sys.mac] Need some MF help

sam@neoucom.UUCP (Scott A. Mason) (04/04/89)

Hello,

Just a few quick and hopefully not too difficult questions for the
Mac gurus out there.

Firstly,  what is the standard way of checking for MultiFinder
existence?
Lastly,  what is the standard way of keeping track of the windows,
so that it can be redrawn or updated after a MF switch?
(I hate it when upon returning from the Finder in MF, I find my
 window has been erased by all the folders)

Thanks for the info.

-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it," and certainly don't blame me.
UUCP:  {pitt, scooter, hal, cwjcc}!neoucom!sam    INTERNET:  sam@neoucom.UUCP
Scott A. Mason, Coordinator of Systems Operations, NEOUCOM

keith@Apple.COM (Keith Rollin) (04/05/89)

In article <1562@neoucom.UUCP> sam@neoucom.UUCP (Scott A. Mason) writes:
>
>Firstly,  what is the standard way of checking for MultiFinder
>existence?

There currently is no way to determine if MultiFinder is running, but that's
mostly because we haven't seen a need for this. In DTS, we've found
that almost all of the people who ask this questions really want to find out
if WaitNextEvent or the MFMemory calls are implemented. In those cases, there
are documented methods for finding this out. Just check out Technotes #158,
177, 180, and 205 (the answer's in one of them).

If you do have a valid reason for needing to know if MultiFinder is running,
please let me know! So far it's been a battle, with developers saying "We need
to know!" and Apple saying "No you don't!". Finding a legitimate reason for
knowing would put an end to this contest.

So far, there is only one valid reason that I know about, and this will be
resolved with a future release of the System Disk. It revolves around sub-
launching and whether or not you need to save open documents and configura-
tions. If you have a reason other than this, again, please let me know!

>Lastly,  what is the standard way of keeping track of the windows,
>so that it can be redrawn or updated after a MF switch?
>(I hate it when upon returning from the Finder in MF, I find my
> window has been erased by all the folders)

This shouldn't be happening. If the Finder is obscuring your windows, and your
application is brought to front, you will get an update event (as long as your
event mask allows them).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keith Rollin  ---  Apple Computer, Inc.  ---  Developer Technical Support
INTERNET: keith@apple.com
    UUCP: {decwrl, hoptoad, nsc, sun, amdahl}!apple!keith
"Argue for your Apple, and sure enough, it's yours" - Keith Rollin, Contusions

oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu (David Phillip Oster) (04/05/89)

In article <1562@neoucom.UUCP> sam@neoucom.UUCP (Scott A. Mason) writes:
>Firstly,  what is the standard way of checking for MultiFinder
>existence?

The standard, from Apple is "Don't even try to do this".  Most people do
it by checking to see if the end of the system heap is close to the
beginning of the application heap. If it is, no multifinder.

>Lastly,  what is the standard way of keeping track of the windows,
>so that it can be redrawn or updated after a MF switch?

You've missed the fundamental point of Mac (or X for that matter)
programming. Mac programs work by associating a data structure with a
window. During the course of the program, it mutates the data structure.
There is a "Draw()" function in the program, that can prowl the data
structure, drawing as it goes.  Call this in response to an Update event,
or if you wish to print, call it with the a grafport from the Printer
Manager.  The specific data structure is what is appropriate for _your_
program. Some programs use an offscreen GrafPort, which they mutate by
standard draw commands, but most use higher level data structures than
just the raw pixels. (Thus allowing zooming, panning, or other alternate
views of the same data.)

"Draw()" defines a function from the internal data structures to screen
graphics. Many programs define the inverse of this function "Pick()" which
lets the user select an object on the screen with the mouse.

dee@XAIT.Xerox.COM (Donald Eastlake) (04/07/89)

In article <28399@apple.Apple.COM> keith@Apple.COM (Keith Rollin) writes:
>In article <1562@neoucom.UUCP> sam@neoucom.UUCP (Scott A. Mason) writes:
>>Firstly,  what is the standard way of checking for MultiFinder
>>existence?
>There currently is no way to determine if MultiFinder is running, but that's
>mostly because we haven't seen a need for this. ...
>If you do have a valid reason for needing to know if MultiFinder is running,
>please let me know! So far it's been a battle, with developers saying "We need
>to know!" and Apple saying "No you don't!". Finding a legitimate reason for
>knowing would put an end to this contest.

The way I try to guess if MultiFinder is running is by checking for the
temporary memory assignment traps.  The reason I want to know is that I
dynamicly generate windows in my application with stepped locations and
I don't want to cover the volume, etc., Icons that MF likes to put down
the right edge of the screen.  I also have a "cover sheet" feature to
cover all of my windows after some period of user inactivity.  For
convenience I also contrain it from the right edge under MultiFinder.

I suspect that 90%+ of large real applications and a significant
proportion of smaller programs check for MF one way or the other.  Many
of them may not need to but quite a few have arguably good reasons to do
so.  By refusing to authorize a way to do this, Apple is guaranteeing
problems for these applications in the future.  In fact, if the goal of
Apple is to make it easy to generate programs that will be compatible
into the future an authorized way to meet a purely psychological need
to know if MF is present seems reasonable to me.  Sometimes you should
assume the customer is right even if you think you know better.  It has
always been easy to find out if Switcher is present and I don't know
of that every causing any particular problems.

While I am sending this message, I'd like to put in my vote for a couple
of new traps:
	TrapExist ( trapnumber ) or the like would do the obvious thing
with get trap addresses and the guaranteed undefined trap returning a
Boolean.  Why make everyone do it the hard way?  And glue could check
the ROM version...
	ApplicationTrap ( ... ); this trap would be guaranteed to never
be used by Apple but the application would have license to patch it.  Sort
of like ApplScratch but in the trap number space.

-- 
	+1 617-969-9570		Donald E. Eastlake, III
	ARPA: dee@XAIT.Xerox.COM    usenet:  {cbosg,decvax,linus}!cca!dee
	P. O. Box N, MIT Branch P. O., Cambridge, MA 02139-0903 USA

svc@well.UUCP (Leonard Rosenthol) (04/07/89)

In article <1562@neoucom.UUCP>, sam@neoucom.UUCP (Scott A. Mason) writes:
> 
> Firstly,  what is the standard way of checking for MultiFinder
> existence?
	I think I will take the Apple party line on this one - YOU CAN'T! You
should not have any need to detect that MF is running.  If you need a particular
'feature' of MF like WNE or the MF Mem routines, then simply test for them and
if they exist you can use them - but that does NOT imply that MF is running.

{I still think Apple should add a isMFRunning field to the SysEnvRec}

> Lastly,  what is the standard way of keeping track of the windows,
> so that it can be redrawn or updated after a MF switch?
> (I hate it when upon returning from the Finder in MF, I find my
>  window has been erased by all the folders)
	Seems to me that if you have the proper bits sets in the SIZE resource
to tell the O.S. that you are MF friendly/aware and that your application
handles Update/Activate events properly you should have no problems...

-- 
+--------------------------------------------------+
Leonard Rosenthol        |  GEnie : MACgician
Lazerware, inc.          |  MacNet: MACgician
UUCP: svc@well.UUCP      |  ALink : D0025

cep@apple.com (Christopher Pettus) (04/07/89)

In article <43464@XAIT.Xerox.COM> dee@XAIT.Xerox.COM (Donald Eastlake) 
writes:
> The way I try to guess if MultiFinder is running is by checking for the
> temporary memory assignment traps.  

My understanding is that as of System 6.0.x, the traps which were 
previously implemented only under Multifinder are now implemented both 
under Multifinder and Finder.


-- Christopher Pettus, cep@apple.com

omh@brunix (Owen M. Hartnett) (04/08/89)

In article <28399@apple.Apple.COM> keith@Apple.COM (Keith Rollin) writes:
>In article <1562@neoucom.UUCP> sam@neoucom.UUCP (Scott A. Mason) writes:
>>
>>Firstly,  what is the standard way of checking for MultiFinder
>>existence?
>

[comments deleted]

>If you do have a valid reason for needing to know if MultiFinder is running,
>please let me know! So far it's been a battle, with developers saying "We need
>to know!" and Apple saying "No you don't!". Finding a legitimate reason for
>knowing would put an end to this contest.
>

Why does there have to be a reason?  Why not just put up a flag in Sysenvirons?
Apple DTS always seems to have the attitude that it knows best what 
developers should know about (or rather, not know about).  There may be
developers out there with legitimate need to know - to fix bugs, to implement
a novel feature, or for reasons yet unknown.

If the information is available, and properly documented that there
should be no reasons for using it (that we are currently aware of), then
the programmer will know he has to take the responsibility for using it.

True, some developers will misuse it, but then it's their problem.  Apple
should endeavor to make as much information available as possible, and let
us developers write some "insanely great" applications with it.

-Owen

Owen Hartnett
Brown University Computer Science

omh@cs.brown.edu.CSNET 

keith@Apple.COM (Keith Rollin) (04/09/89)

In article <3637@brunix.UUCP> omh@zaphod.UUCP (Owen M. Hartnett) writes:
>In article <28399@apple.Apple.COM> keith@Apple.COM (Keith Rollin) writes:
>
>>If you do have a valid reason for needing to know if MultiFinder is running,
>>please let me know! So far it's been a battle, with developers saying "We need
>>to know!" and Apple saying "No you don't!". Finding a legitimate reason for
>>knowing would put an end to this contest.
>>
>
>Why does there have to be a reason?  Why not just put up a flag in Sysenvirons?
>Apple DTS always seems to have the attitude that it knows best what 
>developers should know about (or rather, not know about).  

From one point of view, DTS *DOES* know best what developers should know
about. We know what is coming down in the future. We know what changes are
being made to the System Software. Based on this knowledge, we try our best to
prevent developers from burning themselves. We try to quide them down the road
of Future Compatibility. That's our job. So when we make position statements 
like this, it is with these reasons in mind. Believe me, it's NOT because our 
egos are too large to even consider that developers have brains of their own. 
If they were that large, I wouldn't be asking the question that I did.

> ... There may be
>developers out there with legitimate need to know - to fix bugs, to implement
>a novel feature, or for reasons yet unknown.

Could you expand on this? 

	- "To fix bugs": What bugs need to be fixed that require the knowledge 
		that MultiFinder is running?
	- "To implement a novel feature": What kind of features? I would like
		to know about them. So far, most features that developers want
		to implement revolve around questions like "Are there icons
		on the desktop?", or "How do I safely sublaunch?",  or "Am I
		able to unmount an MFS disk", NOT "Is MultiFinder active?"
	- "For reasons yet unknown": Until those reasons DO become known, there
		is no reason for checking for MultiFinder. I can't see a
		developer saying "Gee, let's check for MultiFinder. I don't
		know why, but it might come in handy in the future."

>If the information is available, and properly documented that there
>should be no reasons for using it (that we are currently aware of), then
>the programmer will know he has to take the responsibility for using it.
>
>True, some developers will misuse it, but then it's their problem.  Apple
>should endeavor to make as much information available as possible, and let
>us developers write some "insanely great" applications with it.

It's not just the developer's problem. It's Apple's problem and it's the
customer's problem. If a developer writes a program that misuses information,
the customer loses out when their program breaks when they upgrade to
the next version of System Software. And Apple loses out because we get blamed
for breaking that software. The customer doesn't know what is going on behind
the scenes; all they know is that their Macintosh doesn't work, and that Apple
makes Macintoshes. You should read our Customer mail!

We've already seen the misuse of MultiFinder information happen. When System
6.0 came out, WaitNextEvent was implemented all of the time. Many applications
subsequently failed to work properly. This was despite warnings about this in 
Technotes. 

As a major computer company, Apple has to be responsible about the kinds of
information it gives out. We cannot in good conscience give out information to
developers that they can use to hang themselves. This is Tech Support's
current stance. Do you disagree with it? Do you think that DTS should supply
the rope? If we did, do you think that the customers who constantly have to put
up with broken software could ever forgive us?

>
>Owen Hartnett
>Brown University Computer Science
>


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keith Rollin  ---  Apple Computer, Inc.  ---  Developer Technical Support
INTERNET: keith@apple.com
    UUCP: {decwrl, hoptoad, nsc, sun, amdahl}!apple!keith
"Argue for your Apple, and sure enough, it's yours" - Keith Rollin, Contusions

omh@brunix (Owen M. Hartnett) (04/09/89)

In article <28638@apple.Apple.COM> keith@Apple.COM (Keith Rollin) writes:
>In article <3637@brunix.UUCP> omh@zaphod.UUCP (Owen M. Hartnett) writes:
>>In article <28399@apple.Apple.COM> keith@Apple.COM (Keith Rollin) writes:
>>
>>>If you do have a valid reason for needing to know if MultiFinder is running,
>>>please let me know! So far it's been a battle, with developers saying "We need
>>>to know!" and Apple saying "No you don't!". Finding a legitimate reason for
>>>knowing would put an end to this contest.
>>>
>>
>>Why does there have to be a reason?  Why not just put up a flag in Sysenvirons?
>>Apple DTS always seems to have the attitude that it knows best what 
>>developers should know about (or rather, not know about).  
>
>From one point of view, DTS *DOES* know best what developers should know
>about. We know what is coming down in the future. We know what changes are
>being made to the System Software. Based on this knowledge, we try our best to
>prevent developers from burning themselves. We try to quide them down the road
>of Future Compatibility. That's our job. So when we make position statements 
>like this, it is with these reasons in mind. Believe me, it's NOT because our 
>egos are too large to even consider that developers have brains of their own. 
>If they were that large, I wouldn't be asking the question that I did.
>
I don't mean to imply that your egos are too large - I'm saying that you've
reserved a *lot* of areas as "stuff you shouldn't know."  Witness the
entire Printing Manager.  I know your motives are pure, but we both can
see what the result of this is:  If there is a need to know something,
Programmers will implement a hack.  Just look at the responses to this
posting that appeared previously, there were several methods to find
out if MF is running, some good, some bad, all verboten and tenuous.

And... if there's a legitimate feature that should be implemented, then
somebody like Microsoft will implement it (i.e. printing closer to the
page margins than the LaserWriter driver allows) and then you'll have to
support it because you won't want to break a MS product which has sold
millions.  Now if Ashton-Tate or Informix uses another method, then there's
another method to deal with.  Meanwhile, smaller developers without the
time or resources to invent such hacks have to leave them out of their
programs, while the big software houses are being, albeit grudgingly,
subsidized by Apple. 

What I'm saying is that we should have more information available to us.
Please consider the plight of the software developer who obeyed all the
rules, but by doing so was forced to leave out features which his larger
competitors were able to use.

Don't get me wrong here - I know the work that went into writing Inside
Mac and the technotes - which was tremendous.  It's just that things
which will enable valuable features are often sacrificed to future
compatibility.

>> ... There may be
>>developers out there with legitimate need to know - to fix bugs, to implement
>>a novel feature, or for reasons yet unknown.
>
>Could you expand on this? 
>
>	- "To fix bugs": What bugs need to be fixed that require the knowledge 
>		that MultiFinder is running?

You've already pointed out the sublaunching problem.  Were I to attempt
sublaunching without reading the previous articles and relying on the
printed material, I'd be in Dire Straits.  

>	- "To implement a novel feature": What kind of features? I would like
>		to know about them. So far, most features that developers want
>		to implement revolve around questions like "Are there icons
>		on the desktop?", or "How do I safely sublaunch?",  or "Am I
>		able to unmount an MFS disk", NOT "Is MultiFinder active?"

Suppose someone wanted to know if a file was in the trash?  Why, because it's
a configuration file, and if it exists, then rewrite the file, but if it
doesn't, create a new one.  Under MF, the file could be in the unemptied
trash, but there's no reliable way to tell.

>	- "For reasons yet unknown": Until those reasons DO become known, there
>		is no reason for checking for MultiFinder. I can't see a
>		developer saying "Gee, let's check for MultiFinder. I don't
>		know why, but it might come in handy in the future."
>

Just looking at the responses here shows that a number of programmers
have already implemented ways to effect this.  Maybe they've just written
this code for the fun of it, but I know I only write code when I have a 
need for it.  And there are some *excellent* programmers on this net.

Besides, does DTS feel that confident that any particular application *won't*
have a need?  And if a legitimate need does crop up, will the developer
get a stone wall at DTS?

[comments about misusing documentation deleted to make inews happy]
>As a major computer company, Apple has to be responsible about the kinds of
>information it gives out. We cannot in good conscience give out information to
>developers that they can use to hang themselves. This is Tech Support's
>current stance. Do you disagree with it? Do you think that DTS should supply
>the rope? If we did, do you think that the customers who constantly have to put
>up with broken software could ever forgive us?
>

Believe it or not, I do appreciate your concerns.  But rather than giving
up ropes that we can use to hang ourselves, we'd really love to see some
ladders to save ourselves with:  Apple-approved methods of solving problems
that won't break in the future.

(I know, I'm asking for a lot!  But you guys invented that great computer
and now we're all spoiled!)
Owen Hartnett
Brown University Computer Science

omh@cs.brown.edu.CSNET 

dudek@ai.toronto.edu (Gregory Dudek) (04/10/89)

In article <3637@brunix.UUCP> omh@zaphod.UUCP (Owen M. Hartnett) writes:
>
>Why does there have to be a reason?  Why not just put up a flag in Sysenvirons?
>Apple DTS always seems to have the attitude that it knows best what 
>developers should know about (or rather, not know about).  There may be
>developers out there with legitimate need to know - to fix bugs, to implement
>a novel feature, or for reasons yet unknown.
>
>If the information is available, and properly documented that there
>should be no reasons for using it (that we are currently aware of), then
>the programmer will know he has to take the responsibility for using it.
>
>True, some developers will misuse it, but then it's their problem.

  It's not true that it's merely "their problem" is some (commercial)
developers write bad software.  For any machine, it success or failure
is, to a large extent, determined by the commercial software that exists 
for it.  This is particularly true for the Mac.  As we all know,
the consistency of the 3rd party software has being a major factor in its
success.

  If apple expects to make all or many of MF's features standard aspects
of the OS itself, it would be just asking for trouble by encouraging
people to build MF-dependent applications.  If you are simply asking for
short-term solutions that will cease to work very soon, then just test for
the temporary memory allocation calls or something like that.

  Gregory Dudek

-- 
Dept. of Computer Science (vision group)    University of Toronto
Nice mailers:  dudek@ai.utoronto.ca
UUCP: {uunet,decvax,linus,pyramid,
		dalcs,watmath,garfield,ubc-vision,calgary}!utai!dudek
ARPA: user%ai.toronto.edu@relay.cs.net

sbb@esquire.UUCP (Stephen B. Baumgarten) (04/11/89)

In article <28638@apple.Apple.COM> keith@Apple.COM (Keith Rollin) writes:
>	- "To implement a novel feature": What kind of features? I would like
>		to know about them. So far, most features that developers want
>		to implement revolve around questions like "Are there icons
>		on the desktop?", or "How do I safely sublaunch?",  or "Am I
>		able to unmount an MFS disk", NOT "Is MultiFinder active?"

Here's a useful feature not currently supported by the System: it's
nice to be able to shrink down or partially hide your windows when
you're not frontmost.

Versaterm is a good example of a program that does this.  It lets the
user decide whether or not to shrink its main window, and if so, what
size it should be and where on the screen it should be located.

In some ways, this is even better than having the application zoom
down to an icon; since the window is still visible, you can always
watch what's going on, even when the application is in the background.
Of course, if you have a 19" monitor this isn't so much of a problem,
but most Mac users don't and must suffer with overly cluttered 9"
screens.

I understand what you guys in DTS are saying, but it seems to me that
the world is full of budding Microsoft's (i.e., people and companies
who do what they want, regardless of the "official" line), and if you
don't provide a legal way to do something, saying "don't do this"
won't prevent it from being done.  I think you have to look at the end
result, which currently is that people are doing all sorts of terrible
(by DTS standards) things to check for the existence of Multifinder.
Give them a "legal" way to do it and you have at least a small chance
that things won't all break with the next System release.

--
   Steve Baumgarten             | "New York... when civilization falls apart,
   Davis Polk & Wardwell        |  remember, we were way ahead of you."
   cmcl2!esquire!sbb            | 
   esquire!sbb@cmcl2.nyu.edu    |                           - David Letterman

dee@XAIT.Xerox.COM (Donald Eastlake) (04/11/89)

In article <28638@apple.Apple.COM> keith@Apple.COM (Keith Rollin) writes:
>In article <3637@brunix.UUCP> omh@zaphod.UUCP (Owen M. Hartnett) writes:
>>Why does there have to be a reason?  Why not just put up a flag in Sysenvirons?
>>Apple DTS always seems to have the attitude that it knows best what 
>>developers should know about (or rather, not know about).  
>From one point of view, DTS *DOES* know best what developers should know
>about. We know what is coming down in the future. We know what changes are
>being made to the System Software. Based on this knowledge, we try our best to
>prevent developers from burning themselves. We try to quide them down the road
>of Future Compatibility. That's our job. ...

I don't have any problem with guidelines.  I don't even have problems
with guidelines that Apple software breaks.  It is fine for DTS to want
some motivating informatin before they release some info and to release
it with caveats.  But that is not really what is going on with
MultiFinder.  What we have is a deliberate attempt to make it impossible
for the developer to find out if MultiFinder is running.

You can find out the version number of the System File, you can find out
the version number of the Finder, you can find out the version number
of AppleTalk, your hardware processor, whether you have a floating point
coprocessor, etc., etc., etc.  Of course programs should not lightly be
made dependent on such things.  But with all of these myriad other
version dependencies available, it is just absurd that such an attitutde
of deliberate conceilment has deveoped for MultiFinder.

You can easily check for Switcher and I don't notice it causing the
world to fall apart.  I have not done much with AUX so I don't know if
there is any easy way to check for it, but there should be.

SysEnvirons should return the MultiFinder version number and/or a
multi-tasking field with perhaps various values for none (0), Switcher
active (1), MutliFinder active (2), and maybe other values for AUX
or future systems.

>We've already seen the misuse of MultiFinder information happen. When System
>6.0 came out, WaitNextEvent was implemented all of the time. Many applications
>subsequently failed to work properly. This was despite warnings about this in 
>Technotes. 

This WAS NOT the misuse of MultiFinder information.  If Apple were not
wedged on this subject and had provided some approved method of checking
for MultiFinder, such as a version number in SysEnvirons, 90% + of these
problems would probably not have occured.

>As a major computer company, Apple has to be responsible about the kinds of
>information it gives out. We cannot in good conscience give out information to
>developers that they can use to hang themselves. This is Tech Support's
>current stance. Do you disagree with it? Do you think that DTS should supply
>the rope? If we did, do you think that the customers who constantly have to put
>up with broken software could ever forgive us?

The above is ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT.  There is already so many cubic miles of
rope available in the Macintosh system to hang oneself that it does not
bear talking about.  Can you name any significant facility of the Mac that
CANNOT be used to hang oneself???  This insane quest for perfect safety,
which I can not realy believe is DTS policy, is the recipie for absolute
paralysis.

The Mac prospered as an open and flexible system.  I guess it is reasonable,
as things grow up, for the release of internals details to get a bit more
closed.  But the wedged conceilment of the presence of MultiFinder is way
at the other end of the spectrum, totally un Mac-like, and really quite
sad.

-- 
	+1 617-969-9570		Donald E. Eastlake, III
	ARPA: dee@XAIT.Xerox.COM    usenet:  {cbosg,decvax,linus}!cca!dee
	AppleLink:  D2002	Box N, MIT Branch PO, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA

mnkonar@smallberries.SRC.Honeywell.COM (Murat N. Konar) (04/12/89)

All this stuff about being able to tell whether MF is running
or not may soon be moot.  I seem to recall that eventually,
there will be no UniFinder and that MultiFinder will always
be running.  Any one at DTS care to comment? (Unofficially,
of course. :) )
____________________________________________________________________
Have a day. :^|
Murat N. Konar        Honeywell Systems & Research Center, Camden, MN
mnkonar@SRC.honeywell.com (internet) {umn-cs,ems,bthpyd}!srcsip!mnkonar(UUCP)

kehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr) (04/13/89)

In article <20319@srcsip.UUCP> mnkonar@src.honeywell.com (Murat N. Konar) writes:
 
<All this stuff about being able to tell whether MF is running
<or not may soon be moot.  I seem to recall that eventually,
<there will be no UniFinder and that MultiFinder will always
<be running.  Any one at DTS care to comment? (Unofficially,
<of course. :) )

Don't assume that everyone will upgrade to System 7.0. 
The MacWeek rumor column (Mac the Knife) had some sneak previews in the
11 April issue. In the last paragraph:

"One of the Knife's more reliable informants insists that to take full advantage of the new software, Macs will likely need a ROM upgrade. That would make
the newer models with SIMM-socketed ROMs and the aggressively priced 
SE/30 upgrade that much more attractive."

I just wonder if we're going into a real incompatibility war. If I upgrade
to system 7 at home and they don't at work, I wonder if there are any
implications other than having to work differently.

Shirley Kehr

urlichs@smurf.ira.uka.de (Matthias Urlichs) (04/14/89)

In comp.sys.mac.programmer sbb@esquire.UUCP (Stephen B. Baumgarten) writes:
< 
< Here's a useful feature not currently supported by the System: it's
< nice to be able to shrink down or partially hide your windows when
< you're not frontmost.
< 
< Versaterm is a good example of a program that does this. [...]

.MILD FLAME ON
Ever heard about "Suspend-Resume events" ???
.MILD FLAME OFF

< I understand what you guys in DTS are saying, but it seems to me that
< the world is full of budding Microsoft's (i.e., people and companies
< who do what they want, regardless of the "official" line), and if you
< don't provide a legal way to do something, saying "don't do this"
< won't prevent it from being done.  I think you have to look at the end
< result, which currently is that people are doing all sorts of terrible
< (by DTS standards) things to check for the existence of Multifinder.
< Give them a "legal" way to do it and you have at least a small chance
< that things won't all break with the next System release.
< 
Well, but what if the next System release doesn't distinguish at all whether
MF is running or not?

The fact(s) that the Notification Manager will completely stop the foreground
application, or that I only have to copy a few more PD programs onto my
hard disk to get the most spectacular crash (if not running under Desktop
Manager), are more pressing problems than putting in a feature no one
has any legitimate use for.

The above is strictly my personal opinion!

BTW, yes I know about the problem with _Launch, but that will be adressed
shortly (or so I hope). And yes, I know that you want to leave space for
the Finder's icons when zooming out and if MF is running, but having a
check box in your preferences is the better way to do it. So there.

-- 
Matthias Urlichs -- Humboldtstrasse 7 -- 7500 Karlsruhe 1 -- FRG
urlichs@smurf.ira.uka.de -- ++49+721-621127@PTT

stores@unix.SRI.COM (Matt Mora) (04/28/89)

In article <20319@srcsip.UUCP> mnkonar@src.honeywell.com (Murat N. Konar) writes:
>
>All this stuff about being able to tell whether MF is running
>or not may soon be moot.  I seem to recall that eventually,
                    ^^^^
Are you sure that its moot and not moof :-)




-- 
___________________________________________________________
Matthew Mora
SRI International                            stores@SRI.COM
___________________________________________________________