Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!apple.com!chewy
From: chewy@apple.com (Paul Snively)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Accessing the APPL resources in the desktop file.
Message-ID: <8072@goofy.Apple.COM>
Date: 4 May 90 17:04:28 GMT
Sender: usenet@Apple.COM
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
Lines: 66
References:<500@lily.warwick.ac.uk> <14850@reed.UUCP> <40699@apple.Apple.COM> <1990May3.173024.437@Neon.Stanford.EDU>

In article <1990May3.173024.437@Neon.Stanford.EDU> 
kaufman@Neon.Stanford.EDU (Marc T. Kaufman) writes:
> In article <40699@apple.Apple.COM> pvh@Apple.COM (Pete Helme) writes:
> 
> ->The desktop file is obsolete.  Apple now endorses the use of the 
Desktop
> ->Manager INIT for non-AppleShare Macs.
> 
> >uh... it is?  we do?
> 
> >Pete Helme
> >MacDTS
> >Apple Computer
> 
> Yes, it is.

No, it isn't--there are far more Macintoshes out there with active Desktop 
files than are running with the Desktop Manager, and there are a 
significant number of utilities that rely on that Desktop file (which 
brings us to)...

> No, you don't -- and for the life of me I can't figure out why.
> Try explaining to someone with 2500+ files on his disk just why it is 
that
> Apple still wants to pretend that Desktop Manager shouldn't be used.

A good point, but not that tough to explain: there are several versions of 
the Finder, for example, still extant that know nothing about the Desktop 
Manager and don't work properly with it.  To add insult to injury, a lot 
of disk-related utilities don't know about the Desktop Manager either (as 
has been pointed out here, it's hard to search the "desktop" for APPL 
resources when the Desktop Manager doesn't even use resource files).

We will, of course, make the transition to the use of the Desktop 
Manager--as of System 7.0, in fact.  But for developers of desktop-related 
utilities, it will be a transition rather than an instantaneous event, as 
they rev their software, and people should be aware of that.

> No one wants to use the release Multifinder, either, when they see 6.1b9 
on
> my machine.  They don't understand when I tell them that "6.1 is for the
> important developer folks -- ordinary people aren't allowed to 'set 
aside'".

The assumption here is that 6.1b9 is a supported release of MultiFinder.  
It isn't.  It has some nifty features (specifically a simple IPC 
mechanism, and Set Aside) and it has a few problems (I believe that the 
desktop redrawing bug is still there, and I know that the SADE 
MultiFinders don't properly register their OS information with Gestalt, 
making Gestalt's 'os  ' selector useless under System 6.0.4 and 6.0.5 if 
any of the 6.1 MultiFinders are running).  In any event, no further 
development is being done on MultiFinder 6.1 because it is being 
completely superseded by System 7.0.  And yes, that includes Set Aside.

__________________________________________________________________________
                                Paul Snively
                      Macintosh Developer Technical Support
                             Apple Computer, Inc.

1st Choice: Paul_Snively.DTS@gateway.qm.apple.com
2nd Choice: CHEWBACCA@applelink.apple.com
Last Choice: chewy@apple.com

Just because I work for Apple Computer, Inc. doesn't mean that I believe 
what they believe, or vice-versa.
__________________________________________________________________________