moonrockreptiles- The NeXT Mac OS: Part 2

The NeXT Mac OS: Part 2

Written By: Mike S.

In my last segment I talked a little bit about NEXTSTEP's history and gave an overview of Services. I went on to say that I would compare the Mac and NeXT user experiences but when writing this piece I realized that there was enough info for two articles and decided to break them up. In this segment I'll attempt to describe what it's like to use NEXTSTEP. The comparison will happen in part three.

When you first boot up NeXT you'll see a typical Unix black screen with white text. A ram check shoots by and you're presented with a boot: prompt as well as some text describing your boot options. If you enter the -v command at the boot: prompt you'll get a typical Unix text start-up, only NeXT uses black text in what appears to be a NEXTSTEP window with a white background. This mode is used if you wanted to see why a start-up is freezing or other forms of troubleshooting but it's also nice for those curious to see what's really happening during the boot process.

If you press nothing for 10 seconds after the boot: prompt appears you'll be taken to the standard start-up. A standard start up always begins at 640x480 in greyscale since at this point no drivers have loaded. A grey NEXTSTEP start-up screen appears with italicized text that says starting NEXTSTEP and a spinning wheel that looks like a CD. A NeXT logo is also present. Soon, the italicized text is moved down a line as a ruler like progress bar takes it's place. As the progress moves the italicized text indicates what is going on. Some of the text status messages are: configuring drivers, configuring network, loading automounter. There are several references to daemons and services as well. It's kind of like a text based Mac OS start-up but rather than seeing a row of icons you get descriptions.

Once the start-up process finishes the screen sizes itself to the user selected resolution and color settings, the grey scale spinning wheel goes multicolor and the background switches to a light purplish shade. The effect is kind of like the Wizard Of Oz when the world appears in color for the first time. Depending on whether or not you've set up a password for the default user, named me, you'll either get a log in screen or be taken directly to the workspace.

I'm set up with passwords but the default behavior on first boot is to be auto logged in. Assuming you are set up with password protection you'll be greeted by a large log box with a color NeXT logo, fields for username and password as well as restart and power buttons. If you input an incorrect password the entire log in box shakes from side to side as if it were saying "Not this time buster!" Inputting the proper password results in the log in box gracefully fading out with a closing curtain effect. In other words, the two ends fade away as they approach one another.

Once you're logged in you'll see a row of large tiles with beautiful icons starting at the top right corner and running down the right side of the screen. This is the NeXT Dock, a place for the user to store frequently accessed applications. The next item to appear will be the File Viewer, this is what you use to navigate the file system, It has a shelf a path and three user selectable views. Finally, you'll see a single, grey, floating vertical menu with a black titlebar at the top left corner of the screen.

If you were to inspect the Dock tiles you'll probably notice many of them have three indents, they are actually ellipses. If you see the ellipses it means the application is currently closed and double clicking on the tile will cause the program to launch. Once launched, the ellipses vanish indicating it is open. In the case of the mail tile, the tile changes from having fanned out letters to a single letter with a number in the top left corner of the tile. The number tells you how many messages you have waiting to be read. Docked applications can be set to launch at start-up so you can get right to work a little bit sooner. Just what you wanted to do at 7 AM on Monday I'm sure!

I stated earlier that the File Viewer has three views. These views are browser, icon and list. Icon mode looks like your typical Mac or Windows appearance with folder icons and application icons etc.. The difference here is that all the icons are very large and realistic. The icons are more like mini sculptures and paintings than the cartoonish icons found in other OSs. It's very attractive. List view shows a single pane with a text list of all item. It contains some small, generic, greyscale icons representing files, folders or apps next to their names. This view shows a lot of info about permissions and such. Double clicking a folder will display it's contents in the same view. Navigation works like icon view but it's very ugly. NEXTSTEP's signature view is browser. In browser view you're presented with several rows of vertical columns. The first column shows a text list of the folders and files in the root directory. Folders are represented by an arrow pointing to the next column. Clicking a folder shows it's contents in the next column and this continues for as deep as need be. New columns will be created as necessary and you'll be given scrollbar to get back.

Browser view is great for getting around fast but in deep hierarchies it can be tough to get back to where you started right? It could be but NeXT took care of that using the other two parts of the File Viewer, the shelf and the path. When you're in browser view, all you can do is click on on the names in the list, it offers no graphical representation of the file, folder or app. The path provides you with a graphical representation and is present in all views. For instance, clicking on the browser item named terminal.app will show you it's icon in the path. If you want to rename it you click on it's title in the path and type in a new name. The path will show you the icons of everything you've clicked on to get to where you are. You can then click on the path icon to jump back to any point that you came from. If that sounds complicated the included screenshot may clear things up.

The shelf is a place for storing frequently accessed files or folders. By default your home directory is placed there, represented by a house icon with your username for a title, as well the NeXTApps and Demos folders. The Shelf can be resized or hidden by dragging it's resize dot. The Shelf is more than just a convenient place to place things, however, as it also plays an important part in the management of your files.

I'll tell you about that and more next time.


	The NeXT Mac OS: Part 2 Written By: Mike S. In my last segment I talked a little bit about NEXTSTEP's history and gave an overview of Services. I went on to say that I would compare the Mac and NeXT user experiences but when writing this piece I realized that there was enough info for two articles and decided to break them up. In this segment I'll attempt to describe what it's like to use NEXTSTEP. The comparison will happen in part three. When you first boot up NeXT you'll see a typical Unix black screen with white text. A ram check shoots by and you're presented with a boot: prompt as well as some text describing your boot options. If you enter the -v command at the boot: prompt you'll get a typical Unix text start-up, only NeXT uses black text in what appears to be a NEXTSTEP window with a white background. This mode is used if you wanted to see why a start-up is freezing or other forms of troubleshooting but it's also nice for those curious to see what's really happening during the boot process. If you press nothing for 10 seconds after the boot: prompt appears you'll be taken to the standard start-up. A standard start up always begins at 640x480 in greyscale since at this point no drivers have loaded. A grey NEXTSTEP start-up screen appears with italicized text that says starting NEXTSTEP and a spinning wheel that looks like a CD. A NeXT logo is also present. Soon, the italicized text is moved down a line as a ruler like progress bar takes it's place. As the progress moves the italicized text indicates what is going on. Some of the text status messages are: configuring drivers, configuring network, loading automounter. There are several references to daemons and services as well. It's kind of like a text based Mac OS start-up but rather than seeing a row of icons you get descriptions. Once the start-up process finishes the screen sizes itself to the user selected resolution and color settings, the grey scale spinning wheel goes multicolor and the background switches to a light purplish shade. The effect is kind of like the Wizard Of Oz when the world appears in color for the first time. Depending on whether or not you've set up a password for the default user, named me, you'll either get a log in screen or be taken directly to the workspace. I'm set up with passwords but the default behavior on first boot is to be auto logged in. Assuming you are set up with password protection you'll be greeted by a large log box with a color NeXT logo, fields for username and password as well as restart and power buttons. If you input an incorrect password the entire log in box shakes from side to side as if it were saying "Not this time buster!" Inputting the proper password results in the log in box gracefully fading out with a closing curtain effect. In other words, the two ends fade away as they approach one another. Once you're logged in you'll see a row of large tiles with beautiful icons starting at the top right corner and running down the right side of the screen. This is the NeXT Dock, a place for the user to store frequently accessed applications. The next item to appear will be the File Viewer, this is what you use to navigate the file system, It has a shelf a path and three user selectable views. Finally, you'll see a single, grey, floating vertical menu with a black titlebar at the top left corner of the screen. If you were to inspect the Dock tiles you'll probably notice many of them have three indents, they are actually ellipses. If you see the ellipses it means the application is currently closed and double clicking on the tile will cause the program to launch. Once launched, the ellipses vanish indicating it is open. In the case of the mail tile, the tile changes from having fanned out letters to a single letter with a number in the top left corner of the tile. The number tells you how many messages you have waiting to be read. Docked applications can be set to launch at start-up so you can get right to work a little bit sooner. Just what you wanted to do at 7 AM on Monday I'm sure! I stated earlier that the File Viewer has three views. These views are browser, icon and list. Icon mode looks like your typical Mac or Windows appearance with folder icons and application icons etc.. The difference here is that all the icons are very large and realistic. The icons are more like mini sculptures and paintings than the cartoonish icons found in other OSs. It's very attractive. List view shows a single pane with a text list of all item. It contains some small, generic, greyscale icons representing files, folders or apps next to their names. This view shows a lot of info about permissions and such. Double clicking a folder will display it's contents in the same view. Navigation works like icon view but it's very ugly. NEXTSTEP's signature view is browser. In browser view you're presented with several rows of vertical columns. The first column shows a text list of the folders and files in the root directory. Folders are represented by an arrow pointing to the next column. Clicking a folder shows it's contents in the next column and this continues for as deep as need be. New columns will be created as necessary and you'll be given scrollbar to get back. Browser view is great for getting around fast but in deep hierarchies it can be tough to get back to where you started right? It could be but NeXT took care of that using the other two parts of the File Viewer, the shelf and the path. When you're in browser view, all you can do is click on on the names in the list, it offers no graphical representation of the file, folder or app. The path provides you with a graphical representation and is present in all views. For instance, clicking on the browser item named terminal.app will show you it's icon in the path. If you want to rename it you click on it's title in the path and type in a new name. The path will show you the icons of everything you've clicked on to get to where you are. You can then click on the path icon to jump back to any point that you came from. If that sounds complicated the included screenshot may clear things up. The shelf is a place for storing frequently accessed files or folders. By default your home directory is placed there, represented by a house icon with your username for a title, as well the NeXTApps and Demos folders. The Shelf can be resized or hidden by dragging it's resize dot. The Shelf is more than just a convenient place to place things, however, as it also plays an important part in the management of your files. I'll tell you about that and more next time.
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