Re: gs/os

[dalloff@gcfn.org (Dave Althoff Jr)]

Michael J. Mahon (mjmahon@aol.com) wrote:

: Mac QuickDraw was not compiled--it was written in 68000 assembly
: language.  Therefore, it was only the inspiration for QuickDraw on the
: IIgs--which, I'm pretty sure--is also a pure 65816 assembly code program.
: On both the original Mac and the IIgs speed and compactness were
: critical for their success, and assembly language was the only way
: to meet the objectives.

: The low-level nature of the Mac "toolbox" was a big issue in moving
: the Mac off of the 68000 to PowerPC in the mid-90's.  Fortunately,
: the PowerPC was so much faster than the 68040 that emulation
: was an acceptable--if suboptimal--solution until the toolbox was
: rewritten in a higher-level language.

I'm curious...

Prior to OS-X (perhaps even in the Jaguar era...) was the Macintosh
toolbox ever rewritten in a higher-level language?  Or are they still
building Macintoshes with "clean" assembly code in them?  It would explain
the use of things such as platform-dependent "system enablers" in some
versions of MacOS...

--Dave Althoff, ][.
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