Xref: utzoo comp.sys.mac.system:7919 comp.sys.mac.wanted:4252 comp.sys.mac.apps:7248 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!haven.umd.edu!cs.wvu.wvnet.edu!h.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu From: hooverb@h.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu (Bruce Hoover) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system,comp.sys.mac.wanted,comp.sys.mac.apps Subject: Re: Looking for SWITCHER... Message-ID: <1670@h.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu> Date: 1 Jul 91 04:07:29 GMT References: Sender: news@cs.wvu.wvnet.edu Followup-To: comp.sys.mac.system Lines: 39 From article , by peirce@outpost.UUCP (Michael Peirce): > > In article <1991Jun28.162441.26851@neon.Stanford.EDU>, philip@pescadero.Stanford.EDU (Philip Machanick) writes: >> >> Multifinder, with all applications visible at the same time, >> was touted as an improvement (mostly, it was; I wonder how many >> people remember or know which multifinder features were originally >> introduced as clever hacks to make Switcher work). Still, it seems >> something was lost in the process. It would be an improvement if >> the System 7 hide feature, instead of just making the windows of >> an application invisible, moved them offscreen if memory was >> available. >> >> Kind of ironic that this should come up at the same time as the thread >> about how great the Amiga multiple screen feature is. > > This seems like it might gobble memory very quickly. It also doesn't > sound like it would handle muliple screens too well. I'm staring > at a 19" screen with 24 bits per pixel, I wouldn't want to allocate > 3 Meg for each screen that gets swapped out every time I switched > from MacDraw Pro to PhotoShop to ResEdit then back to MacDraw Pro! > Even turning on VM to get enough memeory would be way too ssllooww... > > -- michael > Ah, but switcher didn't force you to store the screens, it gave the option of storing the screens. When you remember that several original Mac programs ran on 128 K machines, when we got our 512K, we could run switcher with 128 K partitions, and have two or three things running at once. This was several years before anyone ever even heard of multifinder. Remember as well, that the "Classic" line witht the built in monoochrome screen doesn't take much memory for one screen. Especially if you were running from the built-in 400 K floppy, it was slow, slow, slow. So having screens storing was a real treat. BTW, using switcher, it was not required that finder was loaded... you could if you wanted to, but you could save all sorts of memory by not including the finder in you group of partitions. Bruce Hoover