MacroMaker The MacroMaker utility was introduced in System 6. It records mouse and keyboard input as
macros, and has a unique user interface intended to look and act like a
tape recorder. MacroMaker was criticized for its lack of features when compared to
Microsoft's AutoMac III, which was already available commercially. As MacroMaker records only the locations of mouse-clicks inside windows and not what is being clicked on or exactly when, it can not be used to automate actions in more sophisticated programs. The pre-recorded clicks miss buttons if the buttons had moved since the recording, or if they failed to appear upon playback. MacroMaker is not compatible with
System 7, in which it is succeeded by
AppleScript.
Multitasking Macintosh gained cooperative multitasking in March 1985 with
Andy Hertzfeld's Switcher, which can switch between multiple full-screen applications. It was not integrated, and was only sold separately by Apple. Not many programs and features function correctly with Switcher, and it does not share the screen between applications simultaneously. Systems 5 and 6 have
MultiFinder instead, which is much more mature and widely used in System 6. With MultiFinder, the Finder does not quit to free resources, and the system behaves as in the still-familiar multitasking fashion, with the desktop and other applications' windows in the background.
Hardware support System 6 includes support for the Apple
ImageWriter LQ and
PostScript laser printers. New
software drivers allow the ImageWriter LQ to be used on
AppleTalk local area networks and supports the use of
tabloid or B-size paper (). System 6 includes QuickerGraf (originally QuickerDraw), system software used to accelerate the drawing of color images on the
Macintosh II. It was licensed to Apple and
Radius Inc. by its programmer, Andy Hertzfeld. System 6 supports 24
bits of addressable
RAM (random-access memory), which allows for a maximum of 8
megabytes of RAM, with no provision for
virtual memory. These limitations were removed in System 7. System 6's version of the
HFS file system also has a
volume size limit; it supports up to 2
gigabytes (GB) and 65,536 files on any one volume. System 7.5 increased this limit to 4 GB, and 7.5.2 increased it further to 2 TB on certain machines, specifically PCI-based Macintosh models. The Trash (known as the "Wastebasket" in the British-English version) empties when the Finder terminates. Icons on the Desktop in System 6 are not organized into a single folder, as in later operating systems. Instead, the system records if a file is on the Desktop. This is inefficient and confusing, as the user cannot browse to the Desktop in applications besides the Finder, even within the standard
Open and
Save As dialog boxes. Furthermore, these dialogs are primitive, and were mostly unchanged since 1984. The lack of
aliases, shortcuts to files, is another limitation of file management on System 6, and custom file and folder icons are not supported. These issues were all remedied in System 7. A maximum of 15 desk accessories may be installed at one time, including the Chooser, Scrapbook, and Control Panel. System 6 uses the Control Panel desk accessory to access all the installed control panels, which imposes severe user-interface limitations. In System 7, Control Panels are contained in separately openable panels, and are held in a central folder for better organization. Desk Accessories cannot be installed or removed within the Finder; this requires the Font/DA Mover utility. System 7 also fixed this. The interface is not very customizable. The Finder allows each icon to be assigned a color, but the desktop background is limited to an 8x8-pixel color tiled pattern (color patterns were introduced in System 5), and standard window frames are black-and-white. However, many "
INIT" extension files exist to add color and customization. System 7 allows the user to change the color of window frames and various other aspects of the user interface. By 1989, the System 6 user interface was in need of a change. ==Reception==