Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!vtserf!cohill
From: cohill@vtserf.cc.vt.edu (Andrew M. Cohill)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: System 7, and MacX
Message-ID: <1553@vtserf.cc.vt.edu>
Date: 4 Apr 91 14:35:28 GMT
References: <150696@pyramid.pyramid.com> <51143@apple.Apple.COM>
Distribution: na
Organization: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
Lines: 50

In article <51143@apple.Apple.COM> bell@Apple.COM (Mike Bell) writes:
>In article <150696@pyramid.pyramid.com> bjb@pyramid.com (Bruce Beare) writes:
>>I'm trying to get System 7 and MacX to talk to each other. The problem
>>that I am having is that the communications tool box and Ethertalk don't
>>want to install on my 7.0 disk.
>>
>   System 7.0 has the comm toolbox built in !!!; you don't have to run the
>installer. Just drag the MacTCP tool onto the system folder, and it will be 
>put in the right place !
>

My documentation (7.0b4) states that there is a known problem with Phase
1 Ethertalk (Ethernet).  My version of MacX (1.0) won't work at all, and
I assume that it is because of this, not because of toolbox problems.
In order to get my Ethernet connection to come up at all I had to
re-install the drivers *after* I installed 7.0.  Even with that, the
Chooser is extremely flakey;  it loses the zone box constantly, and
usually takes two successive re-boots to get it back.  I am surprised
that something this fundamental is still not working.  

Other than that, I have not found an application that won't work with
7.0.  System 7.0 corrects many little inconsistencies in the interface
and adds lots of mostly subtle goodies that allow much more tweaking
that many of now do with INITs.  I used to have about a dozen marching
across the screen.  I'm down to five, and will probably be able to drop
a couple more as I explore things further.

My own feeling is that the official release will be viewed by the press
as kind of ho-hum compared to the Windows hoopla.  Windows got a lot of
press, even in non-computer mags, because it was such a relatively
astounding improvement (so to speak) over vanilla DOS. Alas, as those of
us who have worked with it all note, it's mostly smoke and mirrors.

System 7.0 will suffer from two problems with the press;  first, the
really powerful technical additions like IAC, virtual memory, and
AppleEvents won't be immediately evident because there will be a lag of
several months before a lot of the software gets reviewed and people
understand the signifcance of them.  

Second, many of the improvements are so subtle that they won't seem
worth writing about, yet there is a gestalt at work that makes the
System 7 interface much, much better, in a multitude of small ways.



-- 
|          ...we have to look for routes of power our teachers never       
|              imagined, or were encouraged to avoid.   T. Pynchon          
|                    
|Andy Cohill        cohill@vtserf.cc.vt.edu            VPI&SU