From: zmonster@athena.mit.edu (Eric M Hermanson)
Subject: Re: Mac multitasking?
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 20:21:55 GMT

In article <m7h2!gd@rpi.edu> johnsd2@jec326.its.rpi.edu.its1 writes:
>In article 2243@athena.mit.edu, zmonster@athena.mit.edu (Eric M Hermanson) writes:
>>I failed to mention another "concrete example" of the magic of object
>>oriented technology in my last post.  
>>
>>NeXTstep 3.0 supports drag and drop color onto text objects.  Therefore,
>>the color of text on the screen (an object) can be changed by simply
>>dragging a color from the color panel and dropping it onto the text.
>>NeXTstep 2.0 did not support this feature.  However, when you upgrade to
>>3.0, the text object gets upgraded, and all programs that use text will
>>support drag and drop color onto text.  All programs will take advantage
>>of this feature by simply upgrading your OS. 
>>
>
>That's annother nice feature, which works if (and only if) the
>programs use the standard text object (or a derivative of it,
>right?)
>Same trick could be done (but has not been done) for the Mac, which
>has a something vaguely similar (text-edit thingies can be handled
>by the system, and it can add features to them)
>
>However, since Mac programs can't really extend the thing for their
>own use, they basically dont use it for any serious text editing- it
>has a size limit of 32k and just isn't very exciting. :/ So in Real Life
>(tm), the Mac can't do this this trick consistently.

Geez, Dan, GIVE IT UP!  The result is that Mac cannot handle this type of
thing.  Mac uses a whole bunch of system extensions to upgrade things.  Pretty
soon, you will have 30 megs of extensions on your hard drive, and you wont
be able to keep track of anything!  This is not the future of computing. 
In my opinion, anyone who invests in a Macintosh at this juncture is making
a big mistake, given the move towards object orientation.  NeXT offers this
technlogy now.  Taligent HOPES to offer it over a year from now.  

Does the fact that you are with Sun Microsystems have anything to do with
your opinions?  Is Sun feeling the heat over there, just a little bit Dan?

>
>>In article <-ch2rl_@rpi.edu> johnsd2@lib104.its.rpi.edu.its1 writes:
>>>>Eric Hermanson Writes:
>>>>Draw a cirle on your Mac screen.  Then draw a tangent to that circle, as best
>>>>you can, without zooming in.  Do the same thing on a NeXT (built in display 
>>>>postcript).  You will find that the tangent is correct when printet out on
>>>>the NeXT 100% of the time.  On the Mac, the tangent is off.
>>>
>>>Really? How does the NeXT do that? How does it knwo I meant 'make this tangent'
>>>and not 'make this almost, but not quite tangent'? Does it assume that
>>>if anything is drawn near-tangent to a circle, it should make it all-the-way
>>>tangent?
>>>
>>>Just exactly what does Display Postscript do here?
>>>
>>
>>Postcript code is sent to the screen AND to the printer.  If the tangent
>>touches the circle on the screen , it will absolutely touch the circle
>>when printed out.
>>
>
>Ah, I see!
>
>What if it is not-touching by 1/2 a (Screen) pixel?
>
>That is the sort of thing that will trip a Mac up in my experience.
>(then again, I basically never use postscript, so perhaps the laserwriter
>			- Dan Johnson

Well you ARE persistent, I will give you that.  It is pretty simple.  With
postcript, if something on the screen (a tangent say) touches something else
on the screen (a circle say) then they will absollutely touch when printed
out.  The screen resolution is LOWER than the printer's resolution.  The 
printer merely adds more "pixels" to the picture, it does not alter the
picture.  Therefore, if your images touch on the screen, they will touch
on the printout, looking smoother on the printed page.  NeXT is the only
system available that supports display postcript.  The SAME code is sent
to the screen to image (postscript) that is sent to the printer.  Since
the computer images the graphic using the CPU before it is sent to the screen
or the printer, the NeXT laser printer needs to internal CPU.  This makes
NeXT laser printers very inexpensive.  Last time I checked, they were
$1100 brand new with an educational discount.

Eric