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From: gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore)
Newsgroups: net.micro.mac,net.micro.amiga
Subject: Re: Portable User Interface Library Update
Message-ID: <436@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: Sat, 25-Jan-86 14:28:22 EST
Article-I.D.: hoptoad.436
Posted: Sat Jan 25 14:28:22 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 26-Jan-86 17:18:28 EST
References: <1115@osu-eddie.UUCP>
Organization: Nebula Consultants in San Francisco
Lines: 39
Xref: watmath net.micro.mac:4322 net.micro.amiga:1722
Summary: The Mac uses "panes" too.

elwell@osu-eddie.UUCP (Clayton M. Elwell) writes (excerpted):
>                      On multitasking systems...each
> application has its own persistent window, while on the Mac and GEM, each
> application usually has several persistent windows.  To
> illustrate, let's imagine you have a (hypothetical) program called `PL Paint'
> which lets you edit, save, & print bitmapped pages.  If this program acted
> like MacPaint and opened up three or so windows (a palette, a tool chest,
> and a document window), it would work fine on a Mac, but would get confusing
> real fast on a Sun or Amiga, since you could easily get confused if you were
> running two instances at once.
> 
> The right way to approach the problem is to use a concept that is used in all
> multitasking systems and some Mac/GEM programs.  This is the concept of a
> ``pane''.  A good example for Mac users is MacDraw.  Each document window
> is split into several parts: the tool chest, the document, the rulers, etc.
> Controls such as scroll bars can also be thought of as special-purpose
> panes.

It sounds like what he's advocating is that each application gets a big
window which it can subdivide to its heart's content into little
windows (not necessarily tiled, but probably tiled).

This is the way the Mac runs multiple things at once with Switcher.
You just have to treat the entire screen as the "big window" within which
you can arrange things.  When you bring up another application, the
"big window" gets hidden behind (or to the side of) another "big window"
for the new application.

The relevant point here is that you can't intermix sub-windows from one
application with those from another -- and this is true on Suns, Macs,
etc, they just use different nomenclature.

As long as PL for the Mac gives you the whole screen as your "window",
while PL for multitasking machines gives you a sub-portion (which you
can move, resize, etc), things should work fine.
-- 
# I resisted cluttering my mail with signatures for years, but the mail relay
# situation has gotten to where people can't reach me without it.  Dammit!
# John Gilmore  {sun,ptsfa,lll-crg,nsc}!hoptoad!gnu    jgilmore@lll-crg.arpa