🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4f6bag$ckp@news.mpd.tandem.com>, Joseph Crowe <jcrowe> wrote:

*snip*

>   Yeah, but not all.  Think about this....you know all of those annoying
>alerts that essentially allow the user no alternative but to respond before
>doing anything else on the Mac?  Let's see, dialogue boxes in MacSpeak.  These
>are the indication that the underlying multitasking mechanism needs rework.  

This in fact has nothing to do with multitasking.  What you are referring
to is a modal dialog box.  Modal dialog boxes are still multitasking since
the Dialog Manager calls WaitNextEvent for keypresses and mouse actions.
In fact, you can tell that it is multitasking because background programs
are still running and doing their thing.

What modal dialog boxes do not allow is a "major context switch", that is,
a change of which program is in the foreground.  Although allowed by the
system software to maintain backwards compatibility, the use of modal
dialog boxes is discouraged by Apple and has been for quite some time.

From _Inside_Macintosh:_Overview_, p. 135:
   IMPORTANT
   To give users maximum control and minimum frustration, you 
   should, whenever possible, implement your dialog boxes as 
   modeless dialog boxes.

So the person to blame here is the software author, not Apple.


>I don't have a problem with using Macs for their strengths....the Amiga is
>not yet an alternative for new technology anymore(Lightwave rendering on a
>68040 is a pain...just as Raydream on my Quadra is a pain).  But to
>persistently deny that bits of the MacOS were flawed in conception and
>implementation puts you in the same camp that Spindler occupied.  It's
>just a piece of software after all, not a religion.(well, maybe it is a
>religion afterall).  And, what Apple really needs to do right now is to
>focus on fixing the problems of MacOS and making it run quickly and
>natively on PowerPC cpus.  I'm bullish enough that I'll probably buy
>another Mac in the next month.  Essentially, argueing passionately from a
>position of ignorance does you no good.

I would agree with everything in this paragraph.  Except buying a new
Mac next month - I just bought one four months ago.  :-)

-- 
KEN FAIR - U. Chicago Law  | Power Mac! | Net since '90 | Net.cop
kjfair@midway.uchicago.edu | CABAL(tm) Member | I'm w/in McQ - R U?
          ** Fuck the Communications Decency Act of 1996. **
Why does George Carlin determine the seven words I cannot say?