Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!apple.com!chewy
From: chewy@apple.com (Paul Snively)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: MPW wish list
Message-ID: <6310@internal.Apple.COM>
Date: 23 Jan 90 17:57:53 GMT
References: <1990Jan23.065751.29303@peace.waikato.ac.nz>
Sender: usenet@Apple.COM
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
Lines: 72

In article <1990Jan23.065751.29303@peace.waikato.ac.nz> 
ldo@peace.waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro) writes:
> Here's my list of what I'd like to see in future versions
> of MPW.
> 
> * The ability to use the contents of a window (or the current
>   selection within a window) as both input and output in the *same*
>   command. That way, I can do nifty things like reformat code
>   (which I've transferred from another machine) with
> 
>         Entab -d 8 -t 4 <"{Target}" >"{Target}"
> 
>   without having to mess around with intermediate temporary
>   files. At the moment, if you try this, you immediately lose
>   the portion of text you were trying to operate on. I'd be quite
>   happy if this new feature were to work only with open windows,
>   not with arbitrary files.

This doesn't work???  Hang on a sec... (going off to try MPW 3)...

Sure enough; it doesn't work.  I'll pass this one along to the MPW team.  
As for it working only for open windows and not with arbitrary files, 
relax; it's no easier to work with windows only than it is with files in 
general.  MPW implements a sophisticated external file system that makes 
open windows essentially override the files that they were opened from, 
which is why you can open a file, make changes, NOT save them, 
compile/link, and the changes will be in effect (good for prototyping 
ideas, lousy as a production technique, obviously).

Thanks for the input!

In article <1990Jan23.065751.29303@peace.waikato.ac.nz> 
ldo@peace.waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro) writes:
> * The ability to extend the selection by holding down the
>   shift key while pressing the arrow keys, as per Inside
>   Plusintosh, pages IV-5 to IV-6, which was published in
>   1986, remember. I was surprised (and disappointed) not
>   to see this feature in MPW 3.0.

I'd always wondered about this too.  In particular, I like the way that 
Macintosh Allegro Common Lisp deals with selections and editing (MACL 
essentially uses EMACS, but it also knows about selections, command-key 
equivalents, and the like).

I'll check to see if a) there's an alternative way to extend selections 
from the keyboard or b) whether MPW will conform to Human Interface 
guidelines better in a future release.

In article <1990Jan23.065751.29303@peace.waikato.ac.nz> 
ldo@peace.waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro) writes:
> * The ability for tools to invoke scripts and other tools,
>   and to generally multitask within the MPW environment. System 7
>   will provide the IPC infrastructure (or so we keep getting told),
>   will MPW 4.0 take advantage of it?

This'd be easy if tools and scripts were applications in their own right, 
but they aren't.  Tools come pretty close, though, so if MPW were revved 
so that tools were apps that got launched into their own layers, perhaps 
as "background-only" apps, and the interactive environment stuff were 
rewritten... hmmmmm... but that leaves scripts sorta out in the cold.  
Maybe that would be ok.  I think this one needs some serious kicking 
around in the MPW team, but it's still nothing that I can promise (then 
again, none of this is).

All good ideas; let's see what we can do about them.

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