Mac System 7.0 vs. Unix

[Tom Chappell]

larryc at puente.jpl.nasa.gov (Larry Carroll) writes:

>This is a kind of silly thing to ask, but my supervisor doesn't think so:
>How does Apple's System 7.0 operating system compare with Unix?
>(So far it seems like the biggest change to the Apple OS is cosmetic.)

Man, oh man, I can't believe you just said that. I won't bother with a full
list, but apart from the "cosmetic" changes, System 7 includes:

1. Peer-To-Peer networking via AppleTalk (LocalTalk, TokenTalk, or EtherTalk)
   built in to the system software.  It's there, on every Macintosh, right
   down to the Macintosh Classic.

2. Inter-Application Communication, INCLUDING IAC BETWEEN APPLICATIONS RUNNING
   ON DIFFERENT COMPUTERS.

3. Support for File, Folder, and Volume Aliases, similar to UNIX links, except
   that the operating system retains the concept of where the "real" copy of
   the item is.  As with IAC above, these Aliases can reach ACROSS THE NETWORK.

4. Publish and Subscribe.  One Macintosh user selects a portion of a document,
   say the first draft of a budget or drawing, and creates a Publisher based
   on that item.  Other documents, again possibly running on other Macintoshes,
   can Subscribe, and will be automatically updated as the original is changed.

5. Virtual Memory. Allows Macintosh users to actually run several applications
   at once.  In the bad old days, MultiFinder wasn't really very useful,
   because a user would run out of memory right away. No more! Only works
   on the Macintosh II line, and because the original II is a 68020 instead
   of a 68030, you need to purchase an MMU, but there's a socket for it already
   on the motherboard.

6. No More Finder. In the bad old days, there was a Finder and a MultiFinder.
   Not very often, but often enough to be really, really annoying, software
   developers would ship their "products" with instructions to run it under
   the Finder (No MultiFinder Support).  Well, those guys are going to clean
   up their act really fast, because the UniFinder is gone - the Finder now
   behaves the way the MultiFinder used to. Process control has been beefed up
   as well.

7. Apple Events. System 7 now provides a standard method for applications to
   designate each of the commands that they are capable of. New versions of
   applications written for System 7 use these standard "Apple Events" to
   effect most or all of their own commands.  There are standard events, such
   as "Get ready for a System Shutdown" and each program also has many custom
   Apple Events, which the developers make public in the Apple Event Registry.
   One program can then send an Apple Event to another, telling it to do
   whatever it wants it to do.  A backup program could ask a virus-checking
   program to inspect the file that it had just restored.  A word processor
   could ask a spelling checker to do examine a certain portion of a document.
   A new version of the QuickKeys macro program from CE Software will be
   available very soon that exploits Apple Events.

   And, of course, the two programs can be running on different machines on the
   network.

I might add that all of this stuff has been added so seamlessly that your
impression is, "It seems like the biggest change to the Apple OS is cosmetic."

Next time, try posting questions about the Macintosh to one of the Mac news
groups.