
MacPaint and QuickDraw Source Code - boh
http://www.computerhistory.org/highlights/macpaint/
======
sp332
The Macintosh let the user change the desktop background by specifying an 8x8
black-and-white pattern, which would tile the screen. It was very difficult to
make a pattern that actually looked any good. (The default was a simple
checkerboard that approximated a nice 50% gray.) Atkinson couldn't stand most
people's custom patterns, which were TBH pretty ugly. So instead of making
real Mac windows, all the MacPaint windows were drawn in place over a fake
desktop, with the default 50% gray pattern. You couldn't change the "desktop"
pattern when you were using the MacPaint app. And you know what? No one
complained - it was a nice-looking program :-)

Source: at the bottom of
[http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&s...](http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Desk_Ornaments.txt&characters=Donn%20Denman&sortOrder=Sort%20by%20Date&detail=high&showcomments=1)

~~~
Samuel_Michon
When maximized, Photoshop still uses a 50% gray background. Not only would it
be far too distracting if it showed my desktop picture in the background, the
50% gray surrounding helps me evaluate the colors onscreen.

------
sp332
Why is this in the museum? Well, Don Knuth once said that the MacPaint program
was the best code ever written, and asked that the source be made available
for study. Bill Atkinson rescued his old source code, and got Steve Jobs to
push it through Apple's legal department.
[http://www.businessweek.com/technology/ByteOfTheApple/blog/a...](http://www.businessweek.com/technology/ByteOfTheApple/blog/archives/2010/07/apple_donates_macpaint_source_code_to_computer_history_museum.html)

~~~
ruff
Bill Atkinson remains one my idols. If only the Hypercard source would be
released!

~~~
joshu
Pretty sure Andy pushed it through.

I got fwd'd a copy of the original thread :)

~~~
sp332
Yup, it was Andy - according to Andy, according to BusinessWeek :-)

Care to share that thread here?

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dmboyd
I love this bit:

    
    
        appleMenu: IF NOT Monkey THEN
        BEGIN
          IF active THEN
            BEGIN
              KillStuff; 

...

~~~
dmboyd
related:
[http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story...](http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Monkey_Lives.txt)

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dchest
What does $S compiler directive mean?

~~~
dchest
Answering to myself: segment name. Usually 8 spaces, but there are some named
ones, like SegInit, which get unloaded when they are no longer needed.

~~~
cosmicray
The 128 Mac had a very tight memory footprint (and no VM). Add to that that
stuff was all being loaded from a floppy. The performance they were able to
squeeze out of it was amazing.

------
igrekel
Wow, long time since I have last read Pascal code. Makes me wonder if there
any Pascal code still in use somewhere.

~~~
callahad
My previous employer still has actively maintained PL/I in production.
Anything is possible in the bowels of Corporate America.

~~~
igrekel
Yes, I've seen Cobol, APL too... but pascal was not so much a language for
business applications, except in delphi I guess.

~~~
neovive
There is definitely quite a bit of Cobol around on mainframes powering many
mission-critical applications. Replacement of these old systems generates huge
revenues for companies like Oracle/Peoplesoft and SAP.

Pascal was a great learning language. Probably second to BASIC, but much
better as a precursor to learning C.

