[X Newbies] OSX not dial-up friendly

[Eugene Lee]

On Wed, Sep 24, 2003 at 03:09:33PM -0700, Kevin Stevens wrote:
: 
: We'll see how it plays out in this case.  I hope that, after thinking
: about the implications of one program disconnecting access for other
: programs in a complex environment, people will accept that it's not an
: appropriate act for the mail program to do,

"Appropriate" is in the eyes of the beholder.

: and that they need to instruct
: the system (or "entire computer", or "root", or however they perceive it)
: to perform such an act if it's really what they want to have happen.  I
: can't really imagine anyone who understands that concept arguing against
: it.

So we have two possible courses of action:

	Choice #1: Mail.app tells Internet Connection.app to establish
	a dialup connection.  Then Mail.app retrieves email.  Finally
	Mail.app tells Internet Connect.app to close the dialup
	connection.

	Choice #2: An AppleScript tells Internet Connection.app to
	establish a dialup connection.  Then the AppleScript tells
	Mail.app to retrieve email.  Finally the AppleScript tells
	Internet Connect.app to close the dialup connection.

Some users want Choice #1.  Other users (in the name of properness,
appropriateness, correctness, etc.) want Choice #2.  But both choices
accomplish the same task, yet both raises the same problems of closing
the connection while other apps might need it.  So what's the point of
arguing that one choice is better than the other, when they both do the
same thing?

It just doesn't seem so obvious that, in this case, it is utterly
importantly to recognize the difference between the OS and the app.


-- 
Eugene Lee
http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/