Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!uwvax!astroatc!nicmad!madnix!jason
From: jason@madnix.UUCP (Jason Blochowiak)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: Another GS/OS Quirk
Message-ID: <1546@madnix.UUCP>
Date: 14 Sep 90 05:55:41 GMT
References: <6693@darkstar.ucsc.edu>
Reply-To: jason@madnix.UUCP (Jason Blochowiak)
Organization: ARP Software, Madison, WI
Lines: 38

toddpw@tybalt.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel) writes:
>What you guys need to understand is the way these things are coded. Desktop
>programs can get pretty nastily complex, [...]

	[Deleted mention that he was only speaking figuratively, and not
about the specific way that the Finder (tm) is coded]

>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.

	Ick! There are two simple ways around this sort of thing:

	1) Write a macro. A macro facility is provided for every serious
language available on the GS. The macro would automatically provide the
"missing" parms (would could be NIL, or somesuch) for calls to the "old"
routine (the name of which would be the name of the macro, and the new name
would be some derivation).

	2) Since some people take an (obviously) perverse pleasure in writing
in odd languages, and since assembly programmers typically don't use macros
for function calls, it would be possible to effectively make a "code macro."
This would be pretty much the same thing as #1, but it would insert the
parameters runtime...

	Now, if we just had a nice OOP system for the GS, this could all become
irrelevant!

>Todd Whitesel
>toddpw @ tybalt.caltech.edu


-- 
Jason B. - jason@madnix.UUCP or astroatc!nicmad!madnix!jason@spool.cs.wisc.edu
I'm now working at SoftDisk, Inc. Of course, what I say is what I say, and not
what they say... I will be calling this account for awhile & dealing with mail
here, but I won't be calling nearly as frequently as I used to.