Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!comp.vuw.ac.nz!actrix!Bruce.Hoult
From: Bruce.Hoult@bbs.actrix.gen.nz
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: Are Multiple Desktops Bad?
Summary: TOPS locks all but one out
Message-ID: <1990Dec4.044857.1104@actrix.gen.nz>
Date: 4 Dec 90 04:48:57 GMT
References: <4489@manta.UUCP> <2419.275a1e33@waikato.ac.nz>
Sender: Bruce.Hoult@actrix.gen.nz (Bruce Hoult)
Distribution: comp
Organization: Actrix Information Exchange, Wellington, New Zealand
Lines: 25
Comment-To: ldo@waikato.ac.nz

In article <2419.275a1e33@waikato.ac.nz> ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University) writes:

> The one situation that worries me at all is the one where you
> publish an entire volume. In this case, the Finder on the machine
> which mounts the volume would (it would appear) end up using the
> same Desktop file as the one on the publishing machine. I'm not
> sure how TOPS handles this.
> 
> Anybody else care to comment?

TOPS only allows one machine at a time to access the desktop file.  The other
machine(s) act the same way as if th desktop file were on a locked disk -- i.e.
they don't record folder and icon changes.

If the server machine is running MultiFinder then *it* will always retain
control of its own desktop file, because the Finder always has it open.  If
the server machine is not running MF (running uniFinder -- yeeech) then it
can lose control of its desktop file if the followng sequence occurs:

   server and client are both running apps
   client quits to finder which opens server's desktop file
   server quits to finder which can't open desktop file
-- 
Bruce.Hoult@bbs.actrix.gen.nz   Twisted pair: +64 4 772 116
BIX: brucehoult                 Last Resort:  PO Box 4145 Wellington, NZ