Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcvax!ukc!icdoc!qmc-cs!miclon!rmanzie
From: rmanzie@miclon.UUCP (Roddy Manzie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: What's so FUN about the ST?!?
Summary: Sunview can't what?
Message-ID: <294@miclon.UUCP>
Date: 29 Jun 89 07:55:21 GMT
References: <8906170329.AA03128@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> <1109@snjsn1.SJ.ATE.SLB.COM>
Organization: Micrognosis International, London.
Lines: 31

In article <1109@snjsn1.SJ.ATE.SLB.COM>, greg@bilbo (Greg Wageman) writes:
> Under SunView, the programmer sets up the window and calls the
> Notifier.  The Notifier only returns control to the programmer, by
> calls to programmer-specified routines, when the user has taken some
> action.  The programmer's code cannot get control until the Notifier
> grants it.  On the ST, the programmer gives up control to TOS only
> when he wishes, and then only until a requested event occurs (ignoring
> interrupts, of course).  This allows the flow of control and the
> program structure to be much more straightforward and obvious.  This,
> in turn, reduces complexity and potential for unwanted "features" (i.
> e. bugs).
> 
> Greg Wageman			DOMAIN: greg@sj.ate.slb.com

Without wanting to turn this into a sunview group, I can't let sunview be
slated incorrectly. Faults it may have, but this isn't one of them. 

The simple notifier interface is as described, but a more advanced usage
is possible using the calls notify_do_dispatch(), notify_no_dispatch(),
and notify_start() to force the notifier to process outstanding actions,
some of which may call user handlers, then return to the user immediately,
giving, as I understand it, the features you have in TOS. So, you have the
ability only to give control to the notifier when you want to rather than
the opposite (notifier only gives you control whan it wants to). Either is
possible.

I could go on at length, but this is not an atari subject, so....


Roddy Manzie, Micrognosis.
...uunet!mcvax!ukc!miclon!roddy       roddy@uk.co.mic.lon   roddy@miclon.co.uk