5FR: Quit on last close

[James A]

> Message: 22
> Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 20:38:33 -0400
> Subject: Re: 5FR: Quit on last close
> Cc: omniweb-l at omnigroup.com
> To: "Jared ''Danger'' Earle" <jared at 23x.net>
> From: Michael Brewer <antispam at carolina.rr.com>
> 
> Yes, of course it's swapped out when it is inactive. Yes, OS X probably
> swaps much better than Windows 2000. I still don't care. I'd like to be
> able to tell an application that I like for it to terminate when I close
> its last window. Is that so hard to understand?

Hi Michael,

I don't claim to be the expert on OS X's GUI standards, but I can tell you
on this one you'll be fighting an uphill battle.

The reason is that I believe Apple's guidelines for dealing with windows
details that the only time you should quit an app when you shut a window is
when
A) there's one "primary" window, that when you shut indicates you've totally
finished with the app (open up Print Centre manually, then close the list of
printers; PC Calc is another non-Apple example), or
B) the app has been open by the OS, not directly by user (eg when you choose
to print something, the print centre opens, then once it's done it quits;
same goes for Stuffit Expander or the Apple Disk Utility).

I don't mean to piss on your party, but what you're describing is not a GUI
guideline that Apple recommends. It's a Windows only thing. I also note, not
even any of the MS apps adhere (or have an option to adhere) to this very
Windowsesque standard.

I know that Jared's and Brent's suggestions were not exactly what you were
looking for, but I think that they were made in the spirit of you trying to
use your computer more efficiently. If you don't shut an App, you just page
it out of main memory when that memory is needed by something else; to
switch back into it, paging in will generally be faster than re-loading it.
Memory leaks can be an issue, so a quit is still occassionally needed, but
otherwise there's no advantage to quitting unless you're short of HD space.
Coming from OS 9, it took me a little while to get to grips with this, and
I'm sure it'll be a bit the same for you coming from Windows. But perhaps
just give it a go?

Good luck with your iBook.

-- james