🚀 go-pugleaf

> In message <DDH2nv.2y3@news.cis.umn.edu>, 
> Jeff Halverson <halv0019@gold.tc.umn.edu> wrote:
> 
> [snip]
> > My favorite quirk in Apples concepts of the GUI is the trashcan!  
> > Have you ever tried to explain that concept to a beginner?  "Okay, 
> > If you want to throw away a file, pick it up, and drop it into the
> trash..."  
> > Simple, enough isn't it?  Then it comes time to show them how to 
> > eject the disk.  "Okay, pick up the disk and drop it in the trash..."   
> > "NO!  I JUST SPENT HOURS ON THAT DOCUMENT SAVED TO THE DISK!"

The reason for dragging the disk to the trash is actually pretty logical
if you look at it in 1984 terms.  In 1984 the Mac didn't have a hard
drive.  It had a 400k floppy.  To copy files 'tween floppies you chose
"Eject Disk" from the whatever menu (I never had a 128k but they had a
System hall of fame in the MacWorld's Mac Secrets book so I don't remember
which menu it was under) which left a ghost image on the desktop.  The
disk was ejected but not unmounted.  This way you could then insert
another disk and drag a file from the disk to the ghost image or vice
versa.  You then swapped disks as necessary.  Then to remove the image
from the desktop you drug it to the trash.  To just eject a disk without
copying it you still had to eject it then drag it to the trash.  Then in a
later system revision you could skip the step of ejecting it so that
dragging it to the trash would both eject and unmount the disk.  With
System 7 the Put Away command appeared.  It ejects and unmounts disks and
also puts files you drag to the desktop to work on back to the folders
they came from.  The proper way to unmount a disk (most definitely NOT the
same as ejecting which people confuse and the eject command does nicely)
is to use Put Away, the drag to the trash is just a shortcut held over
from System 1.

Now for a small piece of history.  As they were preparing System 1 for
shipping they had a different method.  You used the "Alternate Disk."  It
was a virtual disk you used for copying.  You would drag the file to copy
onto the alternate disk and then eject the disk.  No ghost image would
appear.  Then you insert the disk to copy onto and drag the files from the
alternate disk onto the floppy.  The files would be switched, swaping
disks as necessary.  It was eliminated by the ghost image method not long
before the 128 started shipping.  In fact it still appeared in the Manual
and in the instruction program that came with the 128.

--
Hotel California
hotelca@cris.com