Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!m.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies
From: gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: NeXT Limitations?
Message-ID: <61300046@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 23 Nov 90 18:02:00 GMT
Lines: 57
Nf-ID: #N:m.cs.uiuc.edu:61300046:000:3167
Nf-From: m.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies    Nov 23 12:02:00 1990


What are the main limitations of the software and hardware for NeXT
machines?  I suspect there is a serious limitation in the malleability
of the user interface and UNIX.  For instance, you can do the
following to a mac:

1.  Change the template for window creation (window looks) system-wide?
2.  Write GLOBAL patches to sense actions in the systems (like when
    a particular file is written to disk, or when a user
    makes a particular action with the mouse / keyboard, then
    pop up a special menu, etc).
3.  Add functions keys (FKEYs) to the system (special keyboard patch).
4.  Sense inactivity of keyboard/mouse and launch a screen saver
5.  Completely supercede some graphics primitives for fast animation
    in certain special cases, YET, still continue to function in
    harmony with the toolbox (for instance, MS-Word seems to
    use special screen-scroll algorithm when the text window
    is in the default screen location; bit alignment doubles scrolling 
    speed, and does not interfere with other programs).
6.  Do weird things like make the mouse wrap around on the
    screen, make eyes follow mouse on screen, muck with color table
    arbitrarily, do fast animation of up to 50 small (32*32 pixel) 
    objects, etc.
7.  Force a redraw of the screen and capture all the postscript.
8.  Put a real-time clock somewhere useful (in menu bar or in icon).
9.  Take over the hardware at lowest level (i.e. ethernet) and do
    something neat / fast / different (this is a bane of UNIX).
    I.e. make the machine transmit XNS packets, or INIT a floppy
    disk in 5 seconds (without verifying blocks are good), etc.

Can I do all these things without hacking the NeXT kernel?  That seems
to be the big disadvantage about most UNIX systems I've seen -- not
enough malleability without recompiling the kernel. Does the NeXT have
the concept of an "INIT" (user-installed boot-time patch)?  The mac
has some dumb limitations:

1.  Limit on fonts in menu (8) (this may be fixed, I don't know)
2.  Painful way of installing fonts, DA's, FKeys
3.  Zillions of special-cases must be made to get software to work
    (does this machine have color quickdraw?  Are we running
     multifinder?  Are their multiple monitors?  How much memory
     can we work with?  etc. etc. etc.)
4.  Some pieces of hardware have almost zero system support software
    (i.e. no language and little standardization for sounds)
5.  Jumpy mouse (interrupts off) when floppy disk is active.
6.  Broken printing architecture
7.  Broken on purpose in many areas, so that 3rd-party software
    writers can make money "fixing" it.  I.e. no backup software, no
    screen saver, no text editor, (almost) no disk scavenger / repair /
    recovery utility, no way to partition a disk, crippled "find" program,
    crippled scripting program, no supplied way to invert screen video.

What is the mechanism for customizing the NeXT?  I've used one other
workstation (Xerox XDE/Viewpoint) and the method for customization was
pretty awful (in former, build one huge file with magic words, in
latter, no customization was possible).  The Mac's control panel is a
great step forward.