🚀 go-pugleaf

This should go someplace other then comp.windows.x.

In article <1068@witch.witchcraft.sf.ca.us> chappell@witchcraft.sf.ca.us (Tom Chappell) writes:

>larryc@puente.jpl.nasa.gov (Larry Carroll) writes:
>>This is a kind of silly thing to ask, but my supervisor doesn't think so:
>>How does Apple's System 7.0 operating system compare with Unix?
                                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

So lets compare it with Unix.  First let me say that by "Unix" I am
talking about SunOS 4.x and HP-UX from first hand knowlage.  I can't
speak for all the systems that are (or have ever been) called Unix.

>Man, oh man, I can't believe you just said that. I won't bother with a full
>list, but apart from the "cosmetic" changes, System 7 includes:
>
>1. Peer-To-Peer networking via AppleTalk (LocalTalk, TokenTalk, or EtherTalk)
>2. Inter-Application Communication, INCLUDING IAC BETWEEN APPLICATIONS RUNNING

Unix systems have networking.  NFS provides file sharing, but there
are lots of ways that Unix systems use the ability to network.  With a
window system such as X, programs can run on one machine and display
graphics on the screen of another machine.  The X window system is not
unique to Unix, but the Mac OS makes it hard to build more then the
server side of the system.  In other words, to use Macintish A you
have to sit in front of Mac A and use it's keyboard and screen.  You
can't access its CPU power from another computer.

>3. Support for File, Folder, and Volume Aliases, similar to UNIX links, except

The same as "symbolic" links.  Symbolic links can point to files on
other filesystems and via NFS to files on remote machines.

>4. Publish and Subscribe.  One Macintosh user selects a portion of a document,

This feature is mostly a feature of the application you are running,
i.e. the drawing or word processing program.  System 7 may provide
support to such operations, but it does not provide the operations
directly.

Unix applications have had the OS support (in the form of IPC) for
some time.

>5. Virtual Memory. Allows Macintosh users to actually run several applications

Well, almost virtual memory.  All of the programs run in the same
address space.  The programs don't move around.  If you run programs
A, B and C and program B needs more space, you are out of luck.  You
could give each program a huge block of address space, but it's not as
good as each program having its own space.

Another problem with this way of doing things is that one program can
screw up not only itself, but any other program on the system, or the
OS itself.

System 7 also swaps to the filesystem.  This has drawbacks.  Speed
mostly.  OS/2 does this also.  The big reason is that folks can
upgrade to the new virtual memory OS without rearanging hard disk
space.

>6. No More Finder. In the bad old days, there was a Finder and a MultiFinder.

This is taking away a feature.

>7. Apple Events. System 7 now provides a standard method for applications to

This sounds like another form of IPC.  Sounds like points 1, 2, 4 and
7 are all interprocess communication.  Unix has this.

>I might add that all of this stuff has been added so seamlessly that your
>impression is, "It seems like the biggest change to the Apple OS is cosmetic."

I didn't see that many cosmetic changes in 7 anyhow.  I would have
liked to.  The monochrome flat look of the scrollbars and buttons is
looking out of date next to the 3-D and color stuff showing up in OPEN
LOOK, Motif and NextStep.

>Next time, try posting questions about the Macintosh to one of the Mac news
>groups.

I don't get the Mac related newgroups, so I have not moved this thred.-- 
   Gene Hightower