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From: gus@Shasta.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.micro.mac
Subject: Re: Music Works' Volume Control...
Message-ID: <5365@Shasta.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 13-May-85 20:32:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: Shasta.5365
Posted: Mon May 13 20:32:27 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 16-May-85 05:47:10 EDT
References: <2143@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: Stanford University
Lines: 37

> Someone responded to my original appreciation of Music Work's 
> modification to the Control Panel's volume control by indicating that 
> "... (such was a prime example of how NOT to do something, since they 
> could have monitored the setting of the Control Panel's volume control, 
> making their's unnecessary) ..."
> 
> Well, although I don't represent Music Works, I can certainly understand 
> why a user of the program might enjoy having a volume control instantly 
> available while running the application, rather than having to fire up 
> the Control Panel, since different musical selections might require 
> volume modification.
> 
> But, the entire point of my comment was lost:  Regardless of the "right 
> or wrongness" of using your OWN volume control (not to be determined 
> here), once that decision was made, their treatment of the "removal" 
> from the Control Panel was WELL DONE!!!! and shows some of the 
> inventivness and personal expression available on the Mac!

Unfortunately, this sort of hack can never be "well done" no matter how
inventive of correct that actual code is. The fact is that MusicWorks makes
the prior assumption that you will use THEIR control panel with it. Since
DA's are "pluggable," and not part of the application, this is an invalid 
assumption in the general case.

In my previous posting, I was not implying that I was against having a volume
control within your program, especially when that program deals directly
with sound. I was stating that there was no reason to disable the regular
volume control in the control panel. Both can live in harmony IF you just
take the time to read the IM documentation. It is easy for your own
application to monitor the volume control in between calls to desk
accessories and update it's private dial. The converse is trickier, and 
probably bet left alone. (a lot depends on how the control panel handles
things that go on behind its back.)

In any case, existing code NOT inside your application should not be modified
in production software. This includes non-standard systems, or systems with
less than the complete array of seven (now eight) desk accessories.