Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!tellab5!kenk
From: kenk@tellab5.TELLABS.COM (Ken Konecki)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: What do I want to see in the Apple of the 90's?
Message-ID: <1857@tellab5.TELLABS.COM>
Date: 12 Dec 89 13:59:13 GMT
References: <9986@zodiac.ADS.COM>
Reply-To: kenk@tellab5.UUCP (Ken Konecki)
Organization: Tellabs, Inc. Lisle IL
Lines: 52

In article <9986@zodiac.ADS.COM> jtn@zodiac.ADS.COM (John Nelson) writes:
|What does THIS user want to see in a new Macintosh operating system?

I'd like to respond to a few of the points made.
|
|	o Rewrite in Pascal and make software calling sequence ANSII C
|	  complient.  CtoPstr and PtoCstr is a boatload of nonesense.
|	  Of course this will break all kinds of code out there, but then
|	  Apple plans to continue support of OS 6 right?
I assume you meant rewrite in C? My question is why. If you program in
Pascal you don't need the CtoPstr and PtoCstr calls.

|	o Simplify calls to the toolbox.  I hate having to call functions
|	  with a bazillion arguments.  I also dislike sending in "mystery"
|	  parameters like "0L", -1 and so forth.  So what if the ROMS and
|	  system get a little larger.  System 7.0 will run only on 68030
|	  boxes anyway.  You have plenty of room to spread out.
System 7.0 will run on all Macintoshes, 68000, 68020 and 68030.

|	o Stress a greater tie-in with colour.  The Mac OS grew up in the days
|	  when the Mac was available only in B&W monochrome.  There should be
|	  greater support in Resedit and the Finders for colour.  The hardware
|	  is there... but the Finders just don't use it!
Why? There are plenty of people out there who don't need or even want
color (that's why there are more monochrome Macs in the world than
color Macs).

|	o It should be possible to run an X Windows based MultiFinder with true
|	  multitasking.
X-Windows? Why? With regards to your statement about true
multitasking, let me ask you this. Can you run more
than one program at a time under Multifinder? If you said yes, then
you have true multitasking. If you said no, go read your manuals on to
start up multiapplications under Multifinder. I fail to understand why
so many people think pre-emptive multitasking is the only real way to
run more than one application at a time.

|	o Make the OS more Posix call-complient.  Functions like FSGetFile are
|	  a good thing but there should also be ANSI conformant Unix "open"
|	  "read" "write" calls.  The Unix OS interface is simplicity in itself.
|	  Don't ignore the tide of support for Unix and OS STANDARDS.  The OS
|	  looks like it came out of a 128K machine from the mid 1980's.  Wonder
|	  why?
Ever wonder why the Unix interface looks like it came out of a 64K
machine from the mid-1970's?

Just my opinions.
-- 
Ken Konecki
"Eat well, stay fit, and die anyway"
e-mail:kenk@tellabs.com    -or-    ...!uunet!tellab5!kenk	
U.S. Mail: 1271 Portchester Circle, Carol Stream, IL 60188