Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!apple!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!njin!princeton!dry!bskendig From: bskendig@dry.Princeton.EDU (Brian Kendig) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer Subject: Re: Gripes about System 7.0 Message-ID: <5611@idunno.Princeton.EDU> Date: 22 Jan 91 23:47:59 GMT References: <20283@unix.SRI.COM> Sender: news@idunno.Princeton.EDU Organization: Starfleet Academy: Princeton University Lines: 121 [Apple dudes, please read down to the end of this; I have a few questions about System 7 that have nothing to do with TeachText. Honest. ;) ] In article <20283@unix.SRI.COM> mxmora@sri-unix.sri.com (Matt Mora) writes: >1) WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD APPLE WITH ALL THEIR AWESOME PROGRAMMERS > AND UNLIMITED R&D FUNDS CHOOSE TEACH TEXT AS THERE DEFAULT TEXT EDITOR!!!! > THAT IS TRUELY ASSININE! > >Come on now. The finder should have an editor built in. I disagree with that. I don't need a small general-purpose text editor; I'd rather not have to surrender memory and disk space to one if I can help it. Besides: (1) the Finder deals with files, and viewing text has little to do with files on a high level; and (2) Apple is working towards breaking software apart into little modules each of which does a specific task. Tacking TeachText or any other editor onto the Finder would be a step backwards in this regard. >If they can't write one then they can licence the code from someone. And increase their costs even more? What, you don't think the Macs cost too much already? ;) TeachText is nothing more than a vehicle for TextEdit, the text-display package built into the Macintosh. As such, it's restricted to the same things TextEdit is restricted to (it can't handle more than 32k of data, for example), but it's small, simple, and there's not a whole lot of room for bugs. >Even if they don't add an editor to the finder they should at least make the >default program that it launches configurable. "I'm sorry, that file is to big >for teach text to display" will probably be the message a user will get if >they try to open a big read me file. README files are, practically by definition, supposed to be concise and important notes that can't be missed even if the user doesn't feel like reading the docs; if they're long, why not make them into a manual instead? But even so, TeachText is made to display and edit short files. If they gave you something that's capable of handling longer documents (by putting time and money into rewriting TeachText or even redoing TextEdit itself -- not bloody likely), you might not run out and buy MacWrite or QUED or pay shareware for McSink. Apple's not in the application business. >Maybe I'm way off base here and Apple really feels that most users will not >need a text editor, but there is nothing worse than having to read a large >text file on a mac that only has a word processor. First you have to find the >application because if the user just double clicks on the file of course they >will get "application busy or not found dialog". Thats user friendly? Isn't that being fixed in System 7.0? Serious question here -- anyone? If it's not, and even if the dialogs complain something like "The aplication that created this document can not be found" and exit instead of offering to open it with another application that can read TEXT files -- THEN, I'd bash a few fruitcakes at Apple. >Once you found the WP program (after digging through a few folders) you have >to remember wher the file was and hunt for with the lovely SFGet file. Now >that you found the file and open it, You have to wait and wait for the >wonderful wp program to read in the text and format the page because we all >know that everything on the mac has to look good. :-) Well it should look good >but the silly user who wrote the document of course used hard 's and the >margins in this now "untitled" document are smaller than the original and >every thing is all over the place. I know what you mean! If it bothers you that TeachText documents take a long time to load into other WP's and look ugly when they get there, then why not keep a copy of TeachText on your hard drive? Either that, or put up with it for now; the stuff is still readable, and after all who wants to frame README files and hang them on walls? >2) Apple has open up the system file. This is great no more font/da mover. > BUT WHAT ABOUT FKEYS? Come on Apple just a few changes to some source > and you can also drag Fkey files into the system folder. Thats not asking > too much. I don't remember if you can drag sound files but if not you > should include them too. Hmm, good question, there. Apple? Anyone? I've played with System 7.0b1, but I eventually got rid of it. I seriously disliked a few things about it: - It was painfully slow on my Macintosh SE. I assume this is because there's still debugging code left in there because it's only a beta release; I certainly hope things aren't this draggy when it goes production! - I know the bit about icon positioning between System 6 and System 7 (how the icons are moved when you switch Systems) is being fixed -- but I don't like how, when I hit the zoom box, the window snaps to _precisely_ the right and bottom edges of the icons. Cuts it a bit close for my tastes; I find it easier to see if I leave some white space around my outermost icons. Could a `snugness' control be added? That, and a control for just how `staggered' the icons are when you set icon positioning to `staggered' -- I like each icons name to be _just_ above or below that of its neighbor, so I get the effect of having them in rows, but the names don't overlap. - Boy, that thing takes up a heckuvalotta my 2.5 megs of memory! Again, I hope this is because debugging code is hogging the space, and that the System will actually let me run more than one program at a time when it's finally released... - And could we please have a way to flip between active applications via the keyboard? Pretty please? It's annoying enough right now having to reach for the mouse to click on the Multifinder icon under System 6 to switch between my telnet session and my text editor, but now I have to actually pull down a _menu_? Bleah. Aside from that, everything looks peachy! (As long as you fix all the bugs. ;) Any more word yet, officially or through the grapevine, on when System 7 will be released? << Brian >> | Brian S. Kendig \ Macintosh | Engineering, | bskendig | | Computer Engineering |\ Thought | USS Enterprise | @phoenix.Princeton.EDU | Princeton University |_\ Police | -= NCC-1701-D =- | @PUCC.BITNET | "It's not that I don't have the work to *do* -- I don't do the work I *have*."