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From: bb@reef.cis.ufl.edu (Brian Bartholomew)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: NeXT Limitations?
Message-ID: <25570@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>
Date: 25 Nov 90 09:59:56 GMT
References: <61300046@m.cs.uiuc.edu> <61300047@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Sender: news@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU
Organization: UF CIS Dept.
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In article <61300047@m.cs.uiuc.edu> gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu writes:

> A good example of customizability of the mac is the "Blast" INIT.  When
> you hit command-shift-8, the mouse turns into cross hairs.  Then you
> can click on a window, and blow a hole in the window data structure.
> This allows you to dig down through windows to get at the desktop.
> It's not the most useful tool, but it is an impressive demonstration.
> When you close & reopen the window, the hole goes away.

Arrrrgh.  Yet another example of a nasty hack to get around a
fundamentally deficient window manager.  Reasonable implementations of
this functionality that I have seen are all contained within a modular
program entity called the "window manager".  This "window manager"
controls such things as window placements, front/back arrangements,
and window frames.  New functionality is added to this one program in
a clean way, such that applications are not even aware of it, and such
that it works equally well with all applications.  This particular
operation could be generically called "window to back".  I have seen
it made available via a menu pulled down from the window frame, via a
special function key hit while the cursor is within the window, or
even via a single click on the window frame (when the window in
question is already on top of all that might cover it).

Again, I must complain about gross, hacky implementations of stupid
PC-style tricks.  Remember that something as large as a multitasking
windowed workstation should be built from seperate layers of software,
not strung together with spagetti-style, OS-version-specific hacks.

I suppose that "command-shift-8" is one of those immediately-apparent-
to-a-4-year-old key sequences, one that is just "obvious" from the
program design and screen layout, that Mac people are always raving
about.  (no smilie, this is pathetic, not funny)


--
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo."
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Brian Bartholomew	UUCP:       ...gatech!uflorida!mathlab.math.ufl.edu!bb
University of Florida	Internet:   bb@math.ufl.edu