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From: erkyrath@netcom.com (Andrew Plotkin)
Subject: TADS on the Mac
Message-ID: <erkyrathDzFFGo.1A0@netcom.com>
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Date: Thu, 17 Oct 1996 15:38:47 GMT
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Stephen Granade (sgranade@bashful.phy.duke.edu) wrote:
> > >But there already exists a version of TADS for the Mac.  I presume your
> > >version (assuming you had the time) would be different, somehow?  In 
> > >what way?
> > 
> >  I'm sure Andrew has his own list, but there are a few shortcomings of
> > the standard Mac TADS runtime that would be nice if fixed. The most
> > obvious of this is that the Mac runtime doesn't support boldfaced type.
> > Other things that would be nice include a runtime that remembers window
> > position from invocation to invocation, one that remembers font 
> > settings,
> > one that doesn't default to Monaco 9 (I hacked the binary for mine to
> > fix this one, it's so annoying), one that supports extended keyboards
> > (page up/down etc.), one that supports macros, one that supports Drag
> > and Drop text, etc. This isn't to knock the existing runtime - just that
> > it hasn't been updated in a few years.

All of the above (except drag-n-drop, which hasn't made it into MaxZip 
either.)

A few other things that sprung to mind just on the first night of hacking:

All the editing features which are in MaxZip. Command history, arrow 
keys, double-clicking words.

Fat binary.

Error messages built into the interpreter instead of "TADSERR.MSG"

A *lot* of under-the-hood changes which will ensure that the damn thing 
runs right in future MacOS. The existing Mac TADS is essentially System 6 
code. I'm pretty much starting over as a new port.

Stand-alone binaries generated using MaxZip's interface -- the tool is 
built into the interpreter.

Icons thematically consistent with (but different from) MaxZip. :-)

Furthermore, when this is done, I'll probably be able to turn out an 
XTADS without much more trouble.

> In addition, there is a bug in the Mac runtime which breaks delword(), a  
> function for removing vocabulary words from an object.  Say, Andrew, while  
> you're rewriting the runtime, care to fix this bug? :)

I'm having enough fun with the porting; I'm not responsible for engine 
bugs too. At any rate, it's better for Mike Roberts to handle that.

> My hat's off to Mike Roberts.

Definitely.

PS: No, I'm not splitting the window into two windows. Not in the final 
version, anyway. :)

--Z

-- 

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the
borogoves..."
