Xref: utzoo comp.sys.mac.misc:10353 comp.windows.ms:10973 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!math.fu-berlin.de!opal!unido!gmdzi!strobl From: strobl@gmdzi.gmd.de (Wolfgang Strobl) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc,comp.windows.ms Subject: Re: give me solid facts: why is the mac better than MeSsy DOS/WINDOWS Message-ID: <4423@gmdzi.gmd.de> Date: 30 Mar 91 12:12:20 GMT References: <1991Mar24.065427.16198@nntp-server.caltech.edu> <1991Mar26.011127.28302@amd.com> <1991Mar26.063111.3133@cs.uoregon.edu> <1991Mar27.195719.15623@maths.tcd.ie> <10212@hub.ucsb.edu> Followup-To: comp.sys.mac.misc Organization: GMD, St. Augustin, F.R. Germany Lines: 56 doner@henri.ucsb.edu (John Doner) writes: >In article <1991Mar27.195719.15623@maths.tcd.ie> mike@maths.tcd.ie (MIKE ROGERS) writes: >> The Amiga just goes ahead and launches multiple copies. I saw this >>happen with a user and ProPage2. She'd launched three copies of the program >>before I could stop her, each overlaying the other. Nice. >Why would one want this functionality? I use a Mac with Multifinder >running, and I can have multiple copies of the same program running if >I make duplicate copies of the program on the disk, using different >names, and then starting each of them. But so what? I can recall >only one occassion where I needed to do that in the last three years, >and that was with a "quick hack" type program that had almost none of >the normal capabilities. Why would one want the ability to run more than one program or open multiple documents at all? It's much simpler to have multiple copies of the computer on the *real* desk, each running its own copy of the operating system. How many applications do people want to run concurrently? Three, four? No problem: arrange four Classic Macs in a row on the desk, and you have still space left to use a fifth one as a paper-weight. :-) >The "normal capabilities," which most commercial Mac programs nowadays >seem to have, include the ability of an application program to have >several documents open at once in separate windows. Given that, >what's the point of running several copies of the same program? Most commercial Mac programs have this capability, because they have to. The Macs operating system does not have the built-in capability for multiple documents, so applications have to implement it. I prefer to have the feature built right into the OS. (I don't doubt that there is some support in the Mac OS for implementing multiple documents in an application. My point is that the application has to do it, instead of relying on a more general OS feature.) What is the point of running several copies of the same program? Simplicity, in my opinion. Many programs which allow more than one open document support more that one type of document (different views, different components of a workspace, etc.). So usually there is of mixture of documents visible on the desktop, some of them looking similar, some of them looking different. The distinction between different open documents belonging to one application and differnt open documents belonging to different applications seems highly artificial to me. It's a technical detail, and nothing to bother the user with. If there is support for instancing and code sharing in the OS, and if the inter-program communication support is good enough, it is even something not to bother the programmer with, most of the time. Wolfgang Strobl #include