Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!comp.vuw.ac.nz!virtue!ccc_ldo
From: ccc_ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: Protected-mode snake oil
Message-ID: <1287.26d25707@waikato.ac.nz>
Date: 21 Aug 90 21:57:27 GMT
References: <6S*%M~$@rpi.edu>
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
Lines: 44

In <6S*%M~$@rpi.edu>, Garance_Drosehn@mts.rpi.edu (Garance Drosehn)
says, in response to my flame about protected mode not having anything
to do with the protection loopholes required to support screen savers
and the like:

"In my experience, a number of problems with the INITs/cdevs on the Mac
have nothing to do with the function they are performing... Now it is
true that a screwy screen-saver could cause a problem on any system,
but on a decent system the likely problems will be in screen-saving.
Ie, the screen goes black and you can't get it back so you have to
reboot... [so] you are bound to think 'Hey, this just *might* be the
fault of the screen saver'.

"The headache with the current Mac system is that you have to play a
guessing game as to what utility is causing any given bug. Go an tell any
Mac application developer that they have a problem in their application.
The first thing you'll get in reply is a request [to remove] every INIT
and cdev that you have, including ones that are not even remotely
connected to the problem you're seeing."

You have a point. The problem, of course, is that the Mac system has no
explicit provision for a hook such as a screen saver (or most of the
other odd INITs and cdevs that people collect), so the beastie
has to insinuate its little tendrils into all kinds of corners of the
system in order to perform its function in a useful fashion.

One could argue that a protected system could provide well-defined hooks
precisely for functions such as these. The system may not be totally
reliable, but it should be better than the Mac is now.

I can't help feeling, though, that a lot of the fun goes out of it
once you do this. A major part of the PC revolution generally has been
getting computers to do things that no one, least of all the veterans
of the "big" machines, could have imagined. Sure, you can provide hooks
to support all the sorts of add-ons we currently know about. But what
about the sorts of add-ons we *don't* yet know about?

Lawrence D'Oliveiro                       fone: +64-71-562-889
Computer Services Dept                     fax: +64-71-384-066
University of Waikato            electric mail: ldo@waikato.ac.nz
Hamilton, New Zealand    37^ 47' 26" S, 175^ 19' 7" E, GMT+12:00
"...so she tried to break into the father bear's computer, but it was
too hard. Then she tried to break into the mother bear's computer, but
that was too easy..."