Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!stearns
From: stearns@Apple.COM (Bryan Stearns)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Gripes about System 7.0
Message-ID: <11831@goofy.Apple.COM>
Date: 24 Jan 91 02:24:45 GMT
References: <20283@unix.SRI.COM>
Organization: Apple
Lines: 83

In article <20283@unix.SRI.COM>, mxmora@unix.SRI.COM (Matt Mora)
asks a couple of reasonable questions about System 7.0. Because I
was involved with both the issues he asks about, I'll stick my neck
out and venture an answer (then I'll avoid reading comp.sys.mac.programmer
for a month while the flames subside! :-)

>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!

First, thanks for the awesome compliment as well as the minor
insult; as the author of TeachText, I can assure you that only
trace amounts of our "unlimited R&D funds ever made it into my
pocket (boy, if I had a dime for every copy of teachtext, I could
buy you all cheesesteaks at Calvin's from now until System 7 ships,
and still have several bucks left over!).

TeachText IS NOT a word processor. It originally had three design
criteria; it now has a fourth. Here they are; they may help you to
understand where TeachText fits into the big picture.

(1) TeachText is a learning tool; when we stopped shipping MacWrite
with every Macintosh, the folks who write our wonderful tutorials
needed an example application on which to teach users about the
wonders of cut, paste, copy, etc. (Yes, I know, undo is important
too, but it was written in a weekend [just to prove to myself that
I could] and at the last moment before a System release. It came
down to a choice between undo and hiding my friends' names in the
About box, and you know which one I picked!)

(2) Also for the folks who write our wonderful manuals, it allows
users to read ReadMe files, so that we can tell users about things
that we didn't know when the manual deadline passed. There's a hack
to support pictures in ReadMe files so that our writers can show
screen shot fragments, too (but the hack is so evil that it's turned
off for non-ReadMe documents).

(3) IT DOESN'T COMPETE WITH THIRD-PARTY WORD PROCESSORS. Remember,
we just stopped shipping MacWrite because developers were complaining
that they couldn't compete with us even though their word processors
were superior to the MacWrite of the time. (Parenthetically, this
has been great for us users: word processors have gotten much
better, due in part to increased competition. Even MacWrite!).

(4) New for System 7.0, TeachText allows users to view PICT files.
The old mechanism for taking screen shots has been revamped to
support multiple monitors and color, so MacPaint documents could
no longer be the format of choice. [I had nothing to do with this
recent work; my pal Frank Stanbach deserves the credit here!]

Others have defended the position that Finder shouldn't have an
editor built in, though this was considered. The argument that "if
we did build an editor in, it wouldn't be good enough" is strong;
that's the key reason behind the new feature where you can drag
any document to any app that understands that file type, even if
it didn't create the document.

>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.
> 

Lots of folks, including myself, wanted to add support for moving FKEYS
along with fonts, desk accessories, and, yes, sounds. Ultimately, this
idea died because it would have required some new user interface for
resolving ID conflicts between FKEYS. Think about it - there really
isn't anything new about the addition of Font/DA Mover's functionality
to Finder, and we really worked thought hard before bending the new
Finder's interface. 

Besides, Apple doesn't really want to encourage development of
FKEYS: they have no user interface themselves, there's not a defined
environment for them to run in, this can lead to compatibility
problems later, etc.  My personal feeling, here in my asbestos
suit, is that users are better off with a CEToolbox-style mechanism
for invoking DAs, etc, but that isn't necessarily Apple's opinion.

 .....................................................................
Bryan Stearns                                      Apple Computer, Inc.
stearns@apple.com                       20525 Mariani Avenue, M/S 81-BB
                                                    Cupertino, CA 95014