🚀 go-pugleaf

     In some article about Multifinder, Larry Kollar writes:

>        - The Mac dialog boxes lock out *all* user input to tasks or windows
>          other than the dialog box itself.  What if I want to pull up the
>          on-line documentation to help me decide what to set in the dialog?
>          This is a BIG malfeature of Multifinder.

     Programmers should only use modal dialog boxes in situations where a
response from the user is absolutely necessary for a program to continue.  In
most cases, this should be questions like "Should I save this document or
should I throw away your Pulitzer Prize changes to the 500 page document you
are writing?"  Modeless dialogs should be used for casual user input, so that
on-line documentation can be viewed.  Moreover, Modal dialogs do not block out
all tasks.  For example, TOPS can access a local disk for someone else on a
localtalk network while a modal dialog is up.

>        - While printing a background job, I often have a hard time keeping
>          control of the mouse pointer -- it's like using the mouse as a
>          slingshot.  Very annoying.

     I notice this problem when using a 68000 based machine.  This is usually
not a problem when using a 68020 or 68030 based machine, although someone
accessing my local disk from a remote machine via TOPS does cause this problem.
(Maybe we need a coprocessor for I/O?)

>        - You need gobs of memory to do anything useful with MultiFinder.
>          This is as much the fault of what I call "software bloat" as
>          MultiFinder's actual memory requirements (although 500K+ is quite
>          a bit), and this is getting just as bad on Amigas, so this isn't
>          that much of a difference.

     Multifinder (and any multitasker for that matter) derives its memory
requirements from the applications that are running.  Today's cutting edge
applications are HUGE.  Imagine if applications were still small: 3 128K
applications could run comfortably on a 1M machine under Multifinder.  11 of
them could run on a 2M Machine!  Moreover, usual Virtual on a 68020/68030 based
machine circumvents the vast memory requirements for multiple applications.

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