grunau_b@husc4.UUCP (02/04/87)
A few days ago I posted a general question about GEM -- why it is that the convention on the ST, as opposed to the Mac, is to do scrolling on a separate screen WITHOUT menu-bar or mouse (like a PC or standard terminal). On the ST, the standard seems to be to offer mouse-menu functions in a separate screen memory address, so you can switch between the scrolling screen and the screen with GEM windows. My question was whether this was due to a DEFICIENCY of GEM or whether it just happened to be easier to code applications this way. For my two-cents worth, I personally highly prefer the MacIntosh standard. One case in point leads me to post this follow-up: ever since I got a copy of MacKermit, which runs quite nicely (as any well-behaved Mac application does) on David Small's Magic Sac emulator, I have been preferring that to Simon Pool's Uniterm. My preference stems almost entirely from the freedom of having access to the Mac's menu bar and desk accessories. In particular, I have to say that it is VERY useful to be able to call up the clock DA and have it sitting up in a corner while I scroll away. Therefore, I hope it is NOT a deficiency of GEM that leads to the standard as exemplified in Uniterm. I think a single-screen method, scrolling WITHIN windows, is preferable. As for why I am cross-posting this to comp.sys.mac: basically, this case-in- point has its implications for would-be Mac users as well as for ST people. My use of Kermit + clock accessory is something that can be acceptably done only on the ST due to its greater screen size. Since any well-behaved Mac application shouldn't care about the size of the screen, you end up being able to use the greater area to your advantage. On the Mac, I have found, you either have to move your terminal window to a point where it is partially off-screen, and you lose information, or you have to put your clock accessory behind the terminal window, with just enough of it peeking above it to be able to click it to the front when you want to tell the time. On the ST, you can either move the terminal window down about an inch and a half and put the clock above it, or you can leave the MacKermit window where it is and put the clock to the right of it, on screen area that DOESN'T EXIST on the Mac at all! Mac users should get a look at the ST's enhanced Mac display -- I have to agree with the BYTE reviewer of the Mac Plus: one of the Mac's most limiting factors now is the size of its screen. It would definitely benefit from this improvement in its hardware. JJMG