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From: elwell@osu-eddie.UUCP (Clayton M. Elwell)
Newsgroups: net.micro.mac,net.micro.amiga
Subject: Re: Portable User Interface Library Update
Message-ID: <1176@osu-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 23-Jan-86 16:05:06 EST
Article-I.D.: osu-eddi.1176
Posted: Thu Jan 23 16:05:06 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 24-Jan-86 09:23:17 EST
References: <1115@osu-eddie.UUCP> <11411@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <1133@osu-eddie.UUCP> <1666@Shasta.ARPA>
Reply-To: elwell@osu-eddie.UUCP (Clayton M. Elwell)
Organization: Ohio State Univ., CIS Dept., Cols, Oh.
Lines: 32
Xref: watmath net.micro.mac:4262 net.micro.amiga:1684

So far I have gotten a lot of mail on the issue of panes vs. multiple
persistent windows per context.  So far panes are beating multiple windows
by a ratio of about 20:1.  However, this is ultimately the decision of
the author of a given piece of software.  PL will not require you to
use panes.  Any program will be able to open as many windows as the
underlying machine can handle.  However, it will make it just as easy
to use panes (or "panels", as Apple calls them).  If you just want to
use it as a Mac programming tool, that's fine.  Your programs will look
"Macish" and just happen to run on other machines.  However, if you are
trying to write a program that will perform as well as possible on as
many machines as possible, PL will let you do that.  In either case,
PL uses the native facilities as far as possible.  On a Sun, you get
pop-up menus keyed off the third mouse button; on a Mac you get a menu bar.
The program doesn't care.  It just says "I want these menus available.
When such-and-such a menu option is selected, call this function over here."

I hope this helps.  I'm not trying to duplicate Aztec C and turn your Mac
into a 24x80 terminal :-).

Aside:
The folowing sections of PL are now running on the Mac and the Sun:
	Window handling (Sun users will get a small suprise here)
	Menu handling
	Partial control handling (scroll bars & buttons for now)
The next part is the event handler.  When that is done the first
preliminary release will go out over net.sources.  This will be enough
to try it out and write a large class of portable programs.
-- 
				-- Clayton Elwell
				Elwell@Ohio-State.CSNET
				Elwell%Ohio-State@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA
				...!cbosgd!osu-eddie!elwell