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From: ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: MPW 3.3
Message-ID: <1991Jun24.184048.4050@waikato.ac.nz>
Date: 24 Jun 91 18:40:48 +1200
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
Lines: 66

I received ETO #4 this morning. My delivery schedule is improving--it's
been only two months since I got ETO #3.

ETO 4 contains the complete release of MPW 3.2 final. That was useful,
but it wasn't the most interesting thing--what I was after was the update
to MPW 3.3 alpha.

For those who haven't heard, the neatest new feature in MPW 3.3 is
ToolServer. This is a slightly cut-down version of the MPW Shell, which
lets you run tools and scripts in the background. The main thing you can't
do in these scripts (that you can do normally in the MPW Shell) is invoke
editing and window functions.

ToolServer communicates with the foreground Shell using AppleEvents,
so you need to be running System 7 to take advantage of it. You can,
of course, send AppleEvents to ToolServer from an application other
than the MPW Shell. The AppleEvents that ToolServer understands are
documented in the release notes.

I first saw a version of MPW 3.3 and ToolServer on ETO 3. The latest
release is noticeably nicer--I can scroll and switch windows, and make
selections from the Apple menu, while the Shell is executing a script!
I don't recall being able to do that before.

Also, 3.3a2 is just as fast in its text entry as the release version
of 3.2.

You may have been following the discussion in this newsgroup about
altering the default key bindings in the editor. What happened is that
the release notes for MPW 3.3 document the "SetKey" command, which allows
you to specify that a keystroke will invoke either one of the standard
editing commands, or a complete shell script. There is a corresponding
"UnsetKey" command for removing these bindings.

It turns out that MPW 3.2 also has this same facility, though for
some reason, in this version the command is called "SetKeys" (note the
plural) *and* "BindKey" (both names work), with corresponding "UnsetKeys"
and "UnbindKey" commands.

By the way, thanks to those Apple people who told us about this feature
in MPW 3.2. If anybody is going to beat the lot of you up for revealing this
secret, I'd say they may be biting off more than they can chew...

The editing commands are identified by names like "DeleteCharRight"
and "MoveLineUp". In MPW 3.2 and 3.3a1c1 (the ETO #3 version), you
cannot use these commands directly in scripts; they only work as
key bindings. It's interesting that the ETO #4 release notes still say that
"it is, however, the long-range intent to make the editor primitives
scriptable." It turns out that, in 3.3a2, they have in fact done so!

In short, with all the work that's being invested in this key binding
feature, I don't think it's likely to disappear all of a sudden. Let
the THINK users* worry about whether you could have an environment that's
too powerful to use; but if you want to be able to explore anywhere, build
anything, without your environment ever holding you back, MPW remains
the ultimate.

Lawrence D'Oliveiro                       fone: +64-71-562-889
Computer Services Dept                     fax: +64-71-384-066
University of Waikato            electric mail: ldo@waikato.ac.nz
Hamilton, New Zealand    37^ 47' 26" S, 175^ 19' 7" E, GMT+12:00
Any opinions the author has expressed in this posting are sacred to
Epimetheus, the Greek god of hindsight.

*I should point out that I have nothing against THINK users. Some of my
best friends are THINK users. Honest.