Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!pacbell!pacbell.com!decwrl!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu!tybalt.caltech.edu!toddpw
From: toddpw@tybalt.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: Another GS/OS Quirk
Message-ID: <1990Sep8.001629.3374@laguna.ccsf.caltech.edu>
Date: 8 Sep 90 00:16:29 GMT
References: <6693@darkstar.ucsc.edu>
Sender: news@laguna.ccsf.caltech.edu
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Lines: 26

What you guys need to understand is the way these things are coded. Desktop
programs can get pretty nastily complex, and when it comes to handling changes
in the environment (like disks getting ejected without the O/S noticing it
right away) it is often practically impossible to handle every case
intelligently without _seriously_ rewriting a _lot_ of code.

Often, finder (our main example) will call a generic routine because it needs
some info or other. However, this generic routine was designed for more cases
than what each call requires -- for instance, finder is doing something or
other and calls a routine that checks up on all the online disks to make sure
the important ones haven't disappeared. However, the routine isn't told WHICH
disks can't have disappeared, it just asks the user to insert everything!
So you hit cancel on the irrelevant disks and all is well. But it IS annoying.
(NOTE! THIS IS ME SECOND GUESSING FINDER. I DON'T KNOW FOR SURE IF THIS IS THE
ACTUAL REASON FINDER DOES IT.)

What would it take to fix the problem? Rewriting the routine so that it is
told which disks to make sure are online, and rewriting EVERY invocation of
that routine so that the appropriate disks are checked. Depending on how the
program is organized, this could be a real pain in the neck.

Again, I do not know if this really applies to finder, but I am willing to bet
that it is a similar mechanism that is causing the superfluous dialogs.

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ tybalt.caltech.edu