Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!brl-adm!umd5!ames!ucbcad!pasteur!ucbvax!ANDREW.CMU.EDU!jm7e+
From: jm7e+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU ("Jeremy G. Mereness")
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Prodos 16 Environments
Message-ID: <8Vuufsy00XoBEy809A@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 13 Jan 88 17:20:56 GMT
References: <7064@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 49


Why is it necessary that the only interface between the user and Prodos 16 is 
the Finder?

At this point, having used Macs in public clusters, I find the //GS Finder to 
be a bit hard 
to swallow. Until Apple, Zip Technologies (wherever they may be), or anyone 
else speeds up the GS, the Finder seems to me to be just a fancy trick program 
to show what the GS tools can do...

EXCEPT that it is the only way to communicate with Prodos 16 (managing files, 
maintanance, etc.) As the standard program launcher, the 16 bit GS virtually 
IS a Finder. Whenever you turn the machine on or exit a program, the Finder 
would appear, just like on the Macintosh. Well, I would rather have atleast 
the OPTION of a more basic, text-based shell, kind of like Basic.System, but 
more rudimentary, like UNIX. A good example of the thing I would like to see 
is what Kyan's Kix was like in Prodos 8. Then, the Finder can be run on TOP of 
this shell, like a master application, if one wishes to use it. 

This shell would be useful for people who wish to use their Apples as Apples, 
not Macs. Steve Jobs wanted to "force" users to follow the Mac standards and 
learn to use mice and windows (remember the first Macs did not have cursor 
keys so people would have to learn mice). But the //GS is not and should not 
be a Mac. It should have comparable capabilities, as there is no excuse in the 
computer world for a new machine to kepp up with the times, but it should not 
so strictly follow the Mac environment.

The solution is to have the GS be capable of the Mac interface, but not 
limited to it as well. This is where a low level "command shell" just above 
Prodos 16 but beneath application files would come in. One thing that this 
would allow would be greater customizability of the environment.
As in UNIX, a "preferences" file can be created to set certain operating 
conditions of the machine. (I know some people who share a GS, but one uses it 
in 40 columns and in blue and white w/ blue border, the other in 80 columns 
with purple and black and no border. Each time, they must go through the 
control panel and reset the machine to their likings. Gets to be a pain after 
a while). Applications could support such a file to initiate customizable 
features within their environments. Aliases can be set up, keys redefined, and 
batch files can be written, all things that are currently not possible under 
the Finder. Finally, programmers would feel a bit more in control of their 
computers. This has always been the case with older Apples as well as IBMs, 
but never Macs. 

What's nice about the idea is that it would, again, lie beneath the Finder and 
people not interested in it would never have to deal with it. But it would 
allow a little more freedom with which to experiment with the machine; 
something that has always made the // series a bit more appealing to me.

What problems whould there be with this? Suggestions? Ideas?