Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!ucsd!nosc!baron!ryptyde!dant From: dant@ryptyde.UUCP (Daniel Tracy) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: Clipboard (was Re: The Amiga's Future) Message-ID: <37@ryptyde.UUCP> Date: 9 Jun 91 00:00:28 GMT References: <1991Jun7.064750.5770@news.iastate.edu> <1991Jun7.233654.24493@news.iastate.edu> <1991Jun8.010653.21706@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> Reply-To: dant@ryptyde.UUCP (Daniel Tracy) Organization: Ryptyde Timesharing Lines: 31 Responding to the following: " All OS's share one common ground, new functionality and features added to the OS require software to be updated to take advantage of the new features. Show me a platform that automagically updates software via an AI algorithm to use new tools added in the OS and I'll gladly sell my Amiga. (no, OS level improvements don't count such as cosmetics, new gadgets that are handled by the systems software and not the program, etc.)" I don't agree. The more work an OS does for applications the more the OS can be updated to add functionality without requiring apps to be rewritten. You contradict yourself in this paragraph. You say that new functionality added at the OS level doesn't count. OS level? Gee, I wonder what other level the improvements would be implimented on? Anyway, this IS (generally) the only way you add functionality without making developers rewrite their apps to take advantage of it, and it's more compatible. A hack, or AI algorithm, wouldn't have any advantage (any functionality can be added without AI), and would be incompatible with a lot of apps because assumptions must be made. It's hard for me to see your point of view. You basically say "show me an OS that impliments new functionality in apps without having apps be rewritten to take advantage of it. But it doesn't count if apps don't have to be rewritten to take advantage of it". The best way to do the above IS to impliment new functionality on the OS level! Examples: Multitasking, Virtual Memory, Outline fonts onscreen, alias's, etc. All the above are new features for System 7.0. All of them can be used NOW, without apps being rewritten. The more an OS does FOR apps, the more it can improve under the hood this way. This is the functional difference between OS's like MS-DOS and the Mac OS. MS-DOS does so little that any new functionality (nearly) that it adds cannot be used NOW. Are you an MS-DOS user, then?