Inside Macintosh: Processes

Chapter 2 - Process Manager

This chapter describes the Process Manager, the part of the Macintosh Operating System that provides a cooperative multitasking environment. The Process Manager controls access to shared resources and manages the scheduling and execution of applications. The Finder uses the Process Manager to launch your application when the user opens either your application or a document created by your application. This chapter discusses how your application can control its execution and get information--for example, the number of free bytes in the application's heap--about itself or any other open application.

Although earlier versions of system software provide process management, the Process Manager is available to your application only in system software version 7.0 and later. The Process Manager provides a cooperative multitasking environment, similar to the features provided by the MultiFinder option in earlier versions of system software. You can use the Gestalt function to find out if the Process Manager routines are available and to see which features of the Launch function are available.

You should read the chapter "Introduction to Processes and Tasks" in this book for an overview of how the Process Manager schedules applications and loads them into memory. If your application needs to launch other applications, you need to read this chapter for information on the high-level function that lets your application launch other applications and the routines you can use to get information about open applications.

To use this chapter, you need to be familiar with how your application uses memory, as described in the chapter "Introduction to Memory Management" in Inside Macintosh: Memory. You should also be familiar with how your application receives events, as discussed in the chapter "Event Manager" in Inside Macintosh: Macintosh Toolbox Essentials.

This chapter provides a brief description of the Process Manager and then shows how you can

• control the execution of your application
• get information about your application
• launch other applications or desk accessories
• get information about applications launched by your application
• generate a list of all open applications and information about each one
• terminate the execution of your application

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Chapter Contents

About the Process Manager

Using the Process Manager

Getting Information About Other Processes

Launching Other Applications

Launching Desk Accessories

Terminating an Application

Process Manager Reference

Constants

Gestalt Selector and Response Bits

Process-Identification Constants

Launch Options

Data Structures

Process Serial Number

Process Information Record

Launch Parameter Block

Application Parameters Record

Routines

Getting Process Information

Launching Applications and Desk Accessories

Terminating Processes

Summary of the Process Manager

Pascal Summary

Constants

Data Types

Process Serial Number

Process Information Record

Application Parameters Record

Launch Parameter Block

Routines

Getting Process Information

Launching Applications and Desk Accessories

Terminating a Process

C Summary

Constants

Data Types

Process Serial Number

Process Information Record

Application Parameters Record

Launch Parameter Block

Routines

Getting Process Information

Launching Applications and Desk Accessories

Terminating a Process

Assembly-Language Summary

Data Structures

Process Serial Number

Process Information Record

Application Parameters Record

Launch Parameter Block

Trap Macros

Trap Macro Names

Trap Macros Requiring Routine Selectors

Result Codes