Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu!toddpw
From: toddpw@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: GS/OS Close(0)
Message-ID: <1991Apr5.221559.20566@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 5 Apr 91 22:15:59 GMT
References: <51234@apple.Apple.COM>
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Lines: 39

dlyons@Apple.COM (David A. Lyons) writes:

>Whether it's in the OS or somewhere else, the $65,536 question is how to
>*make* all of the Get/SetCurrentOSApp calls at the right times.  If any of
>them have to be made by the applications, that's a problem.

Very true. I have faith (ouch) that only the 'MultiFinder' code and the tools
that it patches (or the tools themselves, if Apple would like to give us any
help on this) will need to make those calls.

>I didn't mean to come across as "it will never work, here's why."  I pointed
>out some tricky problems that would need to be dealt with.  If all of them
>turn out to be solveable, great.  "Kludginess" does not bother me in itself,
>as long as I have a detailed understanding of the interactions going on &
>the conditions under which it will work.

Ok. I was mostly trying to express the frustration that builds up when every
idea we come up with for third party 'something' appears to be shot down by
DTS because of the way the current system is set up. After a while it feels
like DTS is trying to discourage third party development of 'something'. It
now occurs to me that maybe it's because Apple is already working on it, and
you don't want third parties to feel shafted?? (hope, hope)

As for Kludginess, it is something to be avoided at all costs, or done so well
that no more kludges will be needed. Nearly everything new about system 5.0
(and GS/OS itself) qualifies as the latter, and that's why I like it more than
any other O/S I am familiar with. However, closed-form kludges that force you
to kludge around THEM later on can kill a developing system very fast because
the object gets bigger and the design gets so messy nobody can put up with it.
This entropy effect has happened to a couple medium size programs of mine, so
I think I know what I'm talking about -- the GS system software is a lot bigger
and many programs depend on it, so that effect should be far more dangerous.

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ tybalt.caltech.edu

P.S. Dave, thanks for taking the driver question, I really don't want to
spend days crashing the system until I guess right. I'll also need to register
two supervisor ID's sooner or later...