Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!bionet!arisia!roo!mdixon From: mdixon@parc.xerox.com (Mike Dixon) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: NOT (click to type) in NeXTStep? Message-ID: Date: 5 Nov 90 20:02:42 GMT References: <1990Oct28.165341.6949@cs.cmu.edu> <8516@darkstar.ucsc.edu> Sender: news@parc.xerox.com Organization: Xerox PARC, Palo Alto, CA Lines: 18 In-reply-to: fox@allegra.att.com's message of 5 Nov 90 13:55:17 GMT In a multi-tasking operating system there is no need to activate and de-activate applications, only a need to be able to see which application is currently receiving input. The requirement of click- to-type is a vestige of non-multi-tasking operating systems like MS-DOS and MacOS. activating applications on the next isn't done for the OS's benefit (of *course* it doesn't care). it's done for the user's benefit; the activated application brings up its menus and auxilliary windows. to get rid of the notion of activating an application you'd have to have every application leave all its menus and auxilliary windows up all the time. the next interface designers decided this made it *harder* to manage multiple applications, not easier. if you're going to argue with them, at least argue about the real issues. -- .mike.