Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!know!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jarthur!uunet!mcsun!unido!gmdzi!strobl From: strobl@gmdzi.UUCP (Wolfgang Strobl) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc Subject: Re: Can't resize windows? (was Re: Windows 3.0 & the Mac) Message-ID: <3114@gmdzi.UUCP> Date: 16 Jul 90 19:20:32 GMT References: <1990Jul10.022352.4138@bdmrrr.bdm.com> <3097@gmdzi.UUCP> <90195.153543Q8N@psuvm.psu.edu> Organization: GMD, Sankt Augustin, F. R. Germany Lines: 75 Q8N@psuvm.psu.edu (Scott D. Camp) writes: >In article <3097@gmdzi.UUCP>, strobl@gmdzi.UUCP (Wolfgang Strobl) says: >>The problem with the Multifinder is not so much one of the Multifinder >>itself, but of the applications running under it. Most of them are >>written under the assumption that they have the whole screen area at >>their disposal - no need to make windows resizeable, zoomable, or to be >>able to hide some portions of the application - all things which are >>standard in the Windows world. This is why many Mac people are so proud >>about their Macs ability to drive more than monitor and to >>create one big desktop on them. They need it. >I have certainly enjoyed most of the comments from Wolfgang as I noted to him >previously in private e-mail. However, I'm not sure I understand this point. Perhaps I didn't make my point clear enough, or perhaps I do not know enough about the Multifinder. So please let me try again, and correct me if I'm wrong. Multifinder is a relatively late addition to the Macintosh interface. My copy of the "Programmer's Introduction to the Macintosh Family" (1988) does not mention it, and the "Technical Introduction..." contains half a page description and a picture, only. A program which was designed before the advent of the Multifinder had no reason to save screen space or to stuff the same information (or as much as possible) into a window of reduced size. It had to share the screen with a static desktop and an occasional DA, only. But even the Multifinder suffers from the original single-application- design: a switch from one application to another one has to replace the menu bar on top of the screen, because there is only one of them. This is more disturbing than MS Windows use of multiple menu bars and the use of highlighting to show the active application with the keyboard focus. Therefore I think that the concurrent *use* of two or more applications (i.e. have two copies of the notepad editor and one kermit running and cut and paste between all three while composing a message, for example) is to my knowledge more common under Windows than on the Mac, which makes it less attractive for applications to give up screen space, on the Mac. (I do not doubt that it is possible to cut and paste between different running application. But how much and how smooth is it used?) Of course this is how a Windows user/programmer with nearly no Macintosh experience (me) sees it, so please take the above statements as a question: is this observation correct? If not, why? >Even so, I get tired of resizing Windows on my SE when I return to Finder and >want to see the disk or trashcan icons. Therefore, I use MultiFinder 6.1b9 (I >hope I go the version number correct--it's the one with the Set Aside option). >Even though this is a beta version and not distributed generally with Apple's >system software, it appears to be stable and really suits my needs. Also, I >tend to trust things more when they come from Apple instead of shareware >(before you turn the flame guns on, I am referring to shareware products where >I know nothing about the author). This indicates that the resizing capability alone is not enough to get applications to share a screen without either confusing or keeping the user busy. MS Windows tries to tackle this problem by giving the user the option to run an application in one of three modes: minimized (i.e. as an icon), normal size (resizeable or not), and maximized (resized to the maximum size the application allowes), and a fast method to switch between these three modes. So, if I want to use two applications concurrently, I put them side by side by resizing the windows. If an application's windows clutter the screen, I shrink it to an icon. If I use an application exclusively for some time, I maximize it. All this is only a click or a keystroke away. And its not a *new* feature of Windows. Wolfgang Strobl #include