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Path: utzoo!mnetor!yetti!unicus!rae
From: rae@unicus.UUCP (Clith de T'nir)
Newsgroups: net.micro.mac,net.unix
Subject: Re: Porting UNIX Applications to the Mac
Message-ID: <264@unicus.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 17-Sep-86 00:37:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: unicus.264
Posted: Wed Sep 17 00:37:48 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 19-Sep-86 23:49:30 EDT
References: <1572@cbdkc1.UUCP> <1091@hoptoad.uucp> <15372@mordor.ARPA> <137@geac.UUCP>
Reply-To: rae@unicus.UUCP (Clith de T'nir)
Organization: Unicus Software Inc., Toronto, Ont.
Lines: 49
Keywords: command mouse filename command-line
Summary: allow non-filenames in the Mac command line
Xref: mnetor net.micro.mac:7070 net.unix:5533

In article <15372@mordor.ARPA> jdb@mordor.UUCP (John Bruner) writes:
>...  I would prefer a command-line interface even on a
>bitmapped screen, and I suspect many other "power users" of UNIX would
>also.

In article <137@geac.UUCP> len@geac.UUCP (Leonard Vanek) writes:
>The above point leads me to wonder about the use of the two editors that
>come with the Mactintosh version of the Aztec C compiler.
>
>I personally agree with John, that both options should be retained --
>regardless of the hardware.
>
>.. allow the user to switch between input modes depending on how easy
>each request is to express in each of the modes.

When using Aztec C, one may run a Mac program specifying arguments which must
be valid filenames (equivalent to selecting these files as icons together with
the application and then double-clicking).  Now, we could adapt mac programs
fairly painlessly to Unix by allowing any series of strings, not just filenames,
to be passed to applications.  Thus from the Unix side, Mac programs would be
fairly painless to use.

Now as for the Mac side, how do we pass strings to programs?  In the Finder/
Servant, perhaps one could click in the middle of whiteness, creating a text
item, a la MacDraw/MacPaint, and then select that along with the program
before double-clicking.

For pipes, they would use resources rather than straight text.  For Unix
programs, these would always be TEXT resources, but this need not be the case
for other programs.  Hopefully someone more intelligent than I might
think of a way to do this in a painless way so that no extra setup would be
required by the Unix programs like diff, grep etc. (ie no rewriting of code!)...

As for aliases/shell functions, there should be an artifact that would be
called a "Proxy Icon" that is basically a symbolic link to a real icon.  Then
these proxies and text items could be grouped and either put in a folder or
merged into a special icon that, when double-clicked (or perhaps command- or
option-double-clicked in the case of the folder) runs as if the text and the
given application were double-clicked.

A bit long-winded, but I hope you get the idea..  Please feel free to tell me
how foolish I am (preferable in reasonable terms :))
-- 
				"My surname is Li and my personal name is Kao,
				 and there is a slight flaw in my character."

Reid Ellis, aka
Clith de T'nir	{decvax,allegra,ihnp4,pyramid}!utzoo!utcs!yetti!unicus!rae
				or...	    seismo!mnetor!yetti!unicus!rae