Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!apple.com!chewy
From: chewy@apple.com (Paul Snively)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Tail patches
Message-ID: <5326@internal.Apple.COM>
Date: 21 Nov 89 17:42:33 GMT
Sender: usenet@Apple.COM
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
Lines: 51
References:<5249@internal.Apple.COM> <17090@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> <5292@internal.Apple.COM> <1989Nov20.182741.2658@eng.umd.edu> <5320@internal.Apple.COM> <1989Nov21.040138.344@eng.umd.edu> <21353@brunix.UUCP> <1989Nov21.153508.1872@eng.umd.edu>

In article <1989Nov21.153508.1872@eng.umd.edu> russotto@eng.umd.edu 
(Matthew T. Russotto) writes:
> In article <21353@brunix.UUCP> ejd@iris.brown.edu (Ed Devinney) writes:
> >   Jeeeezzzuss, guys...when did Apple (aside from Steve Jobs maybe) 
claim that 
> >the Mac family would be upward-compatible forever?  And if they did, 
when
> >were you gullible enough to believe them?
> That is the whole argument.  Apple claimed, and continues to claim, that
> any program that follows their guidelines will work on all future 
platforms.
> This simply isn't so.

Actually, we never claimed that software written to our guidelines will 
work on all future platforms.  We did, and do, claim that you stand a 
significantly better chance if you do than if you don't.

Unfortunately, we didn't even provide a procedural interface to all of the 
low-RAM globals on the original Macintosh models, and we didn't get around 
to stuff like _HGetState and _HSetState until the 128K ROMs.

We are trying valiantly (and no, our name's not "Eddie") to move the 
Macintosh in a direction that won't force our developers to rely on things 
that are likely to change from one machine/System Software revision to the 
next, but that's simply not entirely possible.  Our systems are not going 
to go into statis anytime soon; they'll continue to evolve, and sometimes 
in ways that are mildly or even fundamentally incompatible with previous 
systems--but hopefully always in ways that are better (although even that 
isn't guaranteed by any means).

That's one of the reasons that stuff like tail patching isn't 
supported--we know today, here and now, that it breaks things.  Other 
things that are good or bad ideas we may either know today, or we may find 
out tomorrow--sometimes the hard way.  That's why we have things like Tech 
Notes, which are a combination of lots of things (Inside Mac fixes and/or 
clarifications, documentation for new system features, caveats about what 
to do and/or not do), and Sample Code (which hopefully shows the RIGHT way 
to do certain things).

So do please follow the guidelines, at least so that you don't break in 
six months, and if you break in two years, well, two years is a helluva 
long time in microcomputer terms.  And remember--the people we're really 
trying to protect here are the users, not Apple Computer, Inc. and not 
you, the developers.  That's a harsh reality, but it IS reality.

__________________________________________________________________________
Just because I work for Apple Computer, Inc. doesn't mean that they 
believe what I believe or vice-versa.
__________________________________________________________________________
C++ -- The language in which only friends can access your private members.
__________________________________________________________________________