Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!xavier!swatsun!jackiw From: jackiw@cs.swarthmore.edu (Nick Jackiw) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer Subject: Re: who caps the window list with nil and when? Message-ID: Date: 9 Feb 90 22:10:42 GMT References: <25d0a2fa.7177@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU> <3872@hub.UUCP> Reply-To: jackiw@cs.swarthmore.edu (Nick Jackiw) Organization: Visual Geometry Project, Swarthmore College, PA Lines: 42 > One would have thought (another assumption gone wrong...) that if THINK Pascal > were going to go to all the trouble it does go to to create an environment for > the user app that it would also give the user app its own window list. > Perhaps Rich Siegel is reading this and can say why this wasn't done... > or that I'm totally wrong and THINK Pascal DOES in fact make a new window list > for the user app. > Disclaimer: "Senatah, ah'm no Rich Siegel." The window list is used by Multifinder and the Window Manager, and THINK Pascal therefore can *not* tamper with it. Remember that the list is accessed by variables (you walk through actual window records), not traps. There's no way some third part (like THINK Pascal) could intervene between your application's attempts to walk that list (which must be defined to include all windows, yours and THINKS', for OS compatibility) and fob you off with some surrogate. THINK Pascal *does* however patch FrontWindow to guarantee that your program never sees a Pascal window (like Observe or Text) on *top*. This it can do without interferring with the OS' requirements of the user list. This was documented in the pre-2.0 Lightspeed manual (the Big Gray Book) someplace. > Now, I haven't been home to the Mac yet today, so I don't know if this is > exactly what's happening in this case. But I remember having run into it > before, so it makes a sort of crazy sense. I'll post something in confirmation > or denial some time tonight. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Pete Gontier | InterNet: 6600pete@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu, BitNet: 6600pete@ucsbuxa > Editor, Macker | Online Macintosh Programming Journal; mail for subscription > Hire this kid | Mac, DOS, C, Pascal, asm, excellent communication skills -- _ _|\____ Nick Jackiw | Visual Geometry Project | Math Department / /_/ O> \ ------------+-------------------------+ Swarthmore College | O> | 215-328-8225| jackiw@cs.swarthmore.edu| Swarthmore PA 19081 \_Guernica_/ ------------+-------------------------+ USA