Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!ukma!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!att!pegasus!ech
From: ech@pegasus.ATT.COM (Edward C Horvath)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Running MPW tools without MPW [was Re: awk]
Message-ID: <2562@pegasus.ATT.COM>
Date: 2 Feb 89 18:29:32 GMT
References: <3625@geaclib.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T ISL Middletown NJ USA
Lines: 21

From article <3625@geaclib.UUCP>, by rae@geaclib.UUCP (Reid Ellis):
> How hard would it be to write a PD standalone shell that only allowed MPW
> tools to be run and did nothing else?  Single window etc.

A fair bit of work, even if Apple would tell you enough to pull it off.  MPW
supplies, for example, a full set of stdio functionality via a jump table
set up at "launch."  MPW Shell actually loads and runs the tools within its
own heap, but of course with their own jump tables.  It goes through a
fairly hairy procedure to restore it's own A5, etc., whenever there's
a call on one of its services.

The service interface is not documented anywhere I know of, you get it for
free when you link with the MPW tool library (i.e. there are really two
stdio libs, one for free-standing, one for pass-thru to MPW, both linked
with every tool, and the interface decides which to use when launched), so
you don't "need to know."

Unless, of course, you're a compiler writer who doesn't want (or can't)
link with the MPW libraries...

=Ned Horvath=