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From: jackiw@cs.swarthmore.edu (Nick Jackiw)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer,comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: DTS and Compatibility (Was: MF)
Message-ID: <2691@carthage.cs.swarthmore.edu>
Date: 14 Apr 89 02:30:22 GMT
References: <1562@neoucom.UUCP> <28399@apple.Apple.COM> <3637@brunix.UUCP> <1304@internal.Apple.COM> <3918@brunix.UUCP> <28878@apple.Apple.COM>
Reply-To: jackiw@carthage.UUCP (Nick Jackiw)
Organization: Visual Geometry Project, Swarthmore College, PA
Lines: 65

In article <28878@apple.Apple.COM> keith@Apple.COM (Keith Rollin) writes:
> In article <3918@brunix.UUCP> omh@zaphod.UUCP (Owen M. Hartnett) writes:
> >
> >Maybe I'm wrong, but if you put up a standard, particularly on an issue
> >as clear cut as this: (0=computer running finder, 1=computer running
> >multi-finder, 2=computer running a/ux, 3 = computer running ???), you
> >will nip a lot of compatibility problems in the bud.
> 
> There are problems with scheme. What if item 3 becomes defined some day.
> 

[FLAME ON!]

Nonsense.  This is the SysEnvirons scheme.  I know we're flogging a dead
horse here, but the High Priests of Multifinder Secrecy have got to realize
that their "function not features" argument is flawed.  I don't ask
"can you draw a line for me in this color?" (a function), I ask "do you
have Color Quickdraw?" (a feature). Asking for functions before using
them is an infinitely-expandable syllogism, as some recent post seemed
close to alluding to. (The classic meta-situation: Before you ask, "Can you
do this?" you've got to ask, "If I ask you if you can do this, can you tell
me the answer?" All cretans are liars.) 

[FLAME DIVERTED TO LIGHT A HASTILY DRAWN CIGARETTE -- No sense in letting
 this good flame go to waste -- ]

Come on apple... If you've got some Secret Imperative ("Immovable Rigour,"
Caligula called it), at least drop your current argument or revise the Mac
to uphold it.  Classic example: I write a game.  Using four-voice sound,
it sounds great, but busts the butt off a 68000 (50% proc time for music
pre-sound chip, recall). If I run it under Multifinder,  my virtuoso
performance croaks like a frog. Ideally, I could implement a second
rendition of that vital theme music, performed on the square-wave generator
(2% load).  I look in the technotes and lo!

TECHNOTE #342
-------------
Author: XXXXXXXX [Classified]

This tech note describes the IsLikelyToCroakLikeAFrog:BOOLEAN function,
implemented in System X.02b1k4 [X=Confidential; If you have NeedToKnow,
contact MacDTS; b=beta; k=kludge].

"Just what I needed."

------------------------------------

Really, sorry to be so strident about this, but it really seems like this
is an issue over which MacDTS and Certain Usenet Readers (myself included)
are never going to agree, regardless of what sort of evidence each provides
for their righteous views.  

[YEOW!!! FLAME BURNED DOWN TO MY FINGER TIPS; SPUTTERING OUT...]

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Keith Rollin  ---  Apple Computer, Inc.  ---  Developer Technical Support

Admiring anyone who believes what they say and is willing to argue over it,
I'm

-- 
     _  _|\____    Nick Jackiw | Visual Geometry Project | Math Department
   / /_/   O>  \   ------------+-------------------------+ Swarthmore College
   |       O>   |  215-328-8225| jackiw@cs.swarthmore.edu| Swarthmore PA 19081
    \_Guernica_/   ------------+-------------------------+                 USA