Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!apple!apple.com!casseres
From: casseres@apple.com (David Casseres)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Real Multifinder (was Re: Hey Apple Mac engineers, answer->Ma)
Message-ID: <3576@internal.Apple.COM>
Date: 15 Aug 89 15:42:45 GMT
Sender: usenet@Apple.COM
Distribution: usa
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
Lines: 38
References:<46100321@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> <1989Aug15.001507.14552@sj.ate.slb.com> <24626@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>

In article <24626@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> truel@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Bob 
Truel) writes:
> I haven't programmed much on the macintosh, and certainly have not
> done any applications (didn't used to have enough memory :), so can 
someone
> who is knowledgeable give a rough estimate as to the size of code that 
must
> be included in every program in order to make it multifinder friendly, 
and 
> the time it takes to produce this code (say for the first time, for a 
fairly
> competant programmer).

It takes about a half-dozen lines of Pascal or C.  Reading the 
documentation might take an hour; writing the code would take half an hour 
the first time.  I'm assuming the code is being added into a competently 
written Mac application.

> UNIX and its associated ideas have been around for 20 years now, I
> would think that some of the better ideas could be scavenged for _The 
> Complete System Rewrite_ that has been promised for 8.0.

I don't think Apple has ever mentioned an 8.0 release, let alone promised 
that it would be a complete system rewrite; if I've missed something, let 
me know!

> It is time for the main event loop to be done away with.

Well, some folks think Unix should be done away with ;*).  I think that if 
you gain some experience with the Mac, you'll find that the main event 
loop is a good way to write event-driven programs, and this is central to 
implementing the Mac user interface.  There is absolutely nothing 
difficult about writing an event loop.  It is not the same thing as 
writing a program to run under Unix or DOS or VMS, but so what?

David Casseres

Exclaimer:  Hey!