Re: A+/InCider article: ACK!

[hal@budapest.math.macalstr.edu (Harold Byron Bouma)]

Jim Wong writes

> 1) I disagree with your assertion that aliases, file sharing, publish &
> subscribe, etc. aren't worth mention; sure, they aren't really _necessary_,
> but then neither are hierarchical file systems, hard disks, or floppy
> drives with capacities greater than 143K.

	I'm not saying that file sharing, publish, subscribe, etc. aren't  
necessary, its just that since the Apple GS can not act as a file server most  
of these features are really a moot point. Of course, it would be possible to  
allow these features over the Appleshare, however, any applications for the GS  
must be upgraded to use them. But because the % of computers using networks for  
this is small, the costs of adding such features would be more than the gains  
from it. Now if Apple or some third party writes a file server software for the  
GS, then my stance on this issue might change.

	As for aliasing, they had to hack up the HFS file system to do it,  
which is much easier to accomplish for the Mac. They only had to worry about  
adding support for that one file system. However, for the GS, it is much more  
difficult because ours has multiple file-systems integrated into it. This leads  
to major design issues as well as implmentation problems. And given this  
delima, I am sure that again the costs of adding that feature outweighed the  
gains that would come from it.

	You see, I speak of cost and gains because Apple Software engineers  
have to propose such features like "we could add this feature for this amount  
of money" and Apple decideds if this additional feature is worth investing  
into. And given the goals of the System 6 team, I'm sure that they had more  
improtant things to add than aliasing in their alloted time. Maybe one day Dave  
& co. might finally get to the point where adding aliasing would be worth their  
time, but right now I bet they have better things to do (Like build the eternet  
card, the IBM FST, and fix bugs in System 6) which I also feel are more  
important than aliasing.

> 
> 2) System 7 occupies less memory on my Mac than system 6 did (partially
> because I removed a few really dumb inits/cdevs), really only is slower
> in the Finder, didn't cause any problems with my hard disk, and generally
> is more capable than system 6 for the GS.  That doesn't mean the GS'
> system software is bad, it just can't do as much.

	The lab manager for the biology department had to get like 3-4 new  
copies of the System 7 master disks because the installer kept munching it. The  
local apple dealer told my other boss that upgrading wasn't that necessary  
because they were having lots of problems with it.

	As for eating less memory, the fact that System 7 requires the  
"Multifinder" to be active all the time eats up more memory than System 6.

	As for not doing as much, both OS's have their strenght and weaknesses.  
Macs have a lot going for them in terms of the multifinder and networking -  
which far surpass what the GS has. However, the GS has many features that are  
also missing or impossible to add to the Macintosh. The Taskmaster for example  
would require a major OS overhaul. I could add more, but why bother. Each OS  
has their strenghts and weaknesses so you just can't say "well, the GS's OS  
just can't do as much," because it can.


| Hal Bouma                            | Send mail to: HBouma@Macalstr.edu    |
| Macalester College, St. Paul, MN.    | and           HBouma@Macalstr.Bitnet |
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