ranson@crcge1.UUCP (D. Ranson CNET) (08/18/87)
According to people from Think Tech, quoted in MacTutor (August), Apple
has dropped Switcher support in System4.1 (meaning for instance that Switcher
will not know about new lomem globals). Is anybody from Apple able to
confirm this? Is Switcher dead? Or maybe MultiFinder should be seen as
Switcher v6?
Daniel Ranson.
...!seismo!mcvax!inria!{crcge1 or cnetlu}!ransonchuq%plaid@Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) (08/18/87)
>According to people from Think Tech, quoted in MacTutor (August), Apple >has dropped Switcher support in System4.1 (meaning for instance that Switcher >will not know about new lomem globals). Is anybody from Apple able to >confirm this? Is Switcher dead? Or maybe MultiFinder should be seen as >Switcher v6? some parts of switcher broke in system 4.0. The rest seems dead with 4.1 switcher is dead, long live switcher. As far as I can tell, multifinder does everything switcher did, properly integrated into the Mac environment (I'm sorry, from the Mac interface point of view, switcher was a royal wart -- it worked fine, but looked terrible). What isn't clear is what this does to things like Word's Quick Switch feature or the LightSpeed C ability to run in a switcher partition. I'll let you know as soon as I get my paws on Multifinder and try it. What does all this mean? Switcher and Servant are dead (servant effectively -- seriously, who needs it now?). Multifinder is in. here are what I see as the pros and cons: Pros: o Switcher is now integrated into the Mac environment, there is a known, supported (and I would assume) stable interface for developers to work from. o No functionality is lost (as far as I can tell) with the replacement of switcher. Cons: o I don't think that developers were really kept up to date with the changes coming up or how it would affect them. Some programs (word? LSC? others?) may have problems until new editions are released. o developers who thought they could pad out their manuals by including the switcher documentation in them are now out of date. Of course, this can also be considered a pro -- and maybe suggest to manufacturers that duplcating unnecessary information isn't really a Good Thing. overall, I think multifinder is a good thing, if only that the hooks into multitasking are finally stabilized and supportable, which they weren't with switcher. a big step forward for long term compatibility. Switcher, for all its wonderfulness, was a hack. Apple took that hack and made it a product. As long as you don't destroy the idea behind the hack (and I don't see that this happened) then I don't see how this can't be to everyone's advantage. chuq Chuq Von Rospach chuq@sun.COM Delphi: CHUQ We live and learn, but not the wiser grow -- John Pomfret (1667-1703)
dorner@uxc.cso.uiuc.edu (08/20/87)
> some parts of switcher broke in system 4.0. The rest seems dead with 4.1 > switcher is dead, long live switcher. > chuq > > Chuq Von Rospach chuq@sun.COM Delphi: CHUQ I think this report of switcher's demise is greatly exaggerated. I use it under system 4.1 (on a Plus and a 512e) all the time. Or am I misunderstanding what is being said? ---- Steve Dorner, U of Illinois Computing Services Office Internet: dorner@uxc.cso.uiuc.edu UUCP: {ihnp4,seismo}!uiucuxc!dorner IfUMust: (217) 333-3339