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From: sho@maxwell.physics.purdue.edu (Sho Kuwamoto)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Apple's New Direction
Message-ID: <4053@newton.physics.purdue.edu>
Date: 6 Sep 90 07:40:35 GMT
References: <1990Sep5.224018.3233@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>
Sender: news@newton.physics.purdue.edu
Organization: Purdue Univ. Physics Dept, W.Lafayette, IN
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In article <1990Sep5.224018.3233@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> anthonjw@clutx.clarkson.edu (Jason W. Anthony,116 Congdon,,2683915) writes:
>Yes, I, in theory, agree.  But, I don't think the new Macs would have to
>be incompatible.  The beauty of the Mac's design is the wealth of routines
>built in to ROM (well, if you're not a programmer it's beautiful). 

As a programmer, I'd like to see the opposite.  It's nice to try to
get as much performance as possible.  However, I think it'd be more
valuable to completely revamp the software.  I don't know if it'd be
profitable, but I'd *love* to see Apple phase out the old Toolbox and
build a completely new set of ROMs which aren't crippled by the fact
that the original Mac was one of the first commercial windowing
personal computer.  

I program mostly in C and C++.  I like what little I've seen of
MacApp, but it's still crippled by the fact that it's built on top of
the Toolbox.  Think of how much cleaner things could be if they were
rewritten from scratch.  There are so many kluges in the Toolbox (some
from the introduction of the Plus, many from the introduction of color
with the II, a few others scattered here and there) which could be
eliminated if a new Toolbox were rewritten for a machine with a minimum
of an 030 (or 020 with PMMU) + color.  

Again, this is a pipe dream.  I'm not saying it'd be profitable for
Apple, or that it useful for the thousands of people who still do
productive things with their Mac Pluses. 

On the other hand, I feel that the sheer agony of programming a
professional quality program for the Mac leads to worse software, less
software.  A machine as wonderful as the Mac deserves to have a
programming environment which is just as wonderful.  

I am happy with the Mac user interface.  What about rewriting the ROMs
so that the user interface is identical, but the programmer can get by
with much less work?  After having programmed in various other
windowing environments, I am sure that the programmer's interface
could theoretically be simplified.

-Sho
-- 
sho@physics.purdue.edu