Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uwm.edu!linac!midway!zaphod!francis From: francis@zaphod.uchicago.edu Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc Subject: Re: give me solid facts: why is the mac better than MeSsy DOS/WINDOWS Message-ID: Date: 6 Mar 91 09:39:36 GMT References: <12337@goofy.Apple.COM> <4194@gmdzi.gmd.de> Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator) Organization: Mathematics Department, University of Chicago Lines: 55 In-Reply-To: strobl@gmdzi.gmd.de's message of 3 Mar 91 02:10:08 GMT In article <4194@gmdzi.gmd.de> strobl@gmdzi.gmd.de (Wolfgang Strobl) writes: The Macs clipboard support seems to be written for transporting something between applications running one after the other, so the Well, often you have to. See below. restriction to a few clipboard formats and the necessity to actually Did you read the explanation I posted? You can put *anything* on the Mac's Clipboard. The name of the format is four characters; that's not few, by any stretch of the imagination. create and copy all the supported formats at the same time. While Windows allows the same style of interation between programs, the prefered method is to generate a request to render a clipboard format only if an application actually asks for a copy of the clipboard content in this format. Wait a minute. Who does the reformatting? Windows? That would pretty definitely limit you to one set of formats, wouldn't it? And if the apps do the reformatting, then you can't do it after quitting (unless you relaunch the whole bloody app just to switch formats!). On a Mac, an app puts out everything it can, all together, for the simple reason that users *do* sometimes/often/always (depending on system and user) quit between making their copy and using it. (In fact, since the Clipboard gets stored on disk, the system may have been restarted and the app deleted since the copy was made! Try reformatting then!) Granted, it would save some RAM/disk resources to be able to get away with copying in only one format at a time--but (1) you don't usually copy all that much at once, and (2) Macs before Sys7 don't have IAC, which would be necessary if you were to request reformatting like this, and (3) putting it into all the formats you can do saves the user time later on. (Suppose the app this came from was on a disk currently off-line. Assuming that the system remembers where it is--no great task for a Mac [Macs remember stuff about removed disks until told to forget--wonderful feature, even if it *is* a legacy of the 1-drive Skinny]--the user will be asked to swap disks to make a copy! Ugh. And let's not even THINK about what happens if you take a year-old item out of the Scrapbook.) All in all, while I see that Window's way saves some storage space, I really think Mac's way is easier on the user. (Provided I've understood Windows right. Perhaps some actual details, please?) -- /=============================================================================\ | Francis Stracke | My opinions are my own. I don't steal them.| | Department of Mathematics |=============================================| | University of Chicago | Until you stalk and overrun, | | francis@zaphod.uchicago.edu | you can't devour anyone. -- Hobbes | \=============================================================================/