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From: jln@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (John Norstad)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Gripes about System 7.0
Message-ID: <2899@casbah.acns.nwu.edu>
Date: 24 Jan 91 19:31:51 GMT
Sender: news@casbah.acns.nwu.edu
Organization: Northwestern University
Lines: 40
References:<5611@idunno.Princeton.EDU> <3810@uakari.primate.wisc.edu>

In article <3810@uakari.primate.wisc.edu> bin@primate.wisc.edu (Paul 
DuBois = Brain in Neutral) writes:

> From article <5611@idunno.Princeton.EDU>, by bskendig@dry.Princeton.EDU 
(Brian Kendig):
> > Apple is working towards breaking software apart into little modules
> > each of which does a specific task.  Tacking TeachText or any other
> 
> Huh.  Sounds like UNIX. :-)

Yes, it's just like UNIX, only completely different :-)  Permit me to 
mount my soapbox...

In UNIX, software pieces are combined using a procedural scripting 
language.  Command line parameters are used to control the operation of 
each piece, and typically the pieces communicate with each other by 
"piping" the output of one piece into the input of another piece.

In System 7.0, software pieces communicate using an object-oriented 
message passing system called "AppleEvents."  This is a much more 
sophisticated and powerful architecture than you'll find in vanilla UNIX 
systems.  Eventually, if all goes well, we hope to see an object-oriented 
system-wide scripting language based on HyperTalk and AppleEvents which 
can be used to control this process.  System 7.0 will not include this 
scripting language, but it lays the foundation for such a language.

This is another example of how Apple takes "old" ideas and "reinvents" 
them in the context of the modern world of personal computers and direct 
manipulation human interfaces.  The new "aliases" in System 7.0 are 
another example - the old idea of "links" improved and expanded.  Apple's 
approach to networking over the years is another good example.
  
IMHO, this is much more interesting, exciting, and important work than 
simply tacking "GUIs" on top of traditional command-line systems, e.g., X 
and NextStep on top of UNIX and Windows 3.0 on top of DOS.

John Norstad
Academic Computing and Network Services
Northwestern University
jln@casbah.acns.nwu.edu