Mac128, I for one certainly appreciate your detail replies on this subject.
I can only add that some Mac 128's and 512's even in the early days developed problems that prevented the internal drive from ejecting the floppy. I know this because I used to work for the now defunct MicroAge Computers as a service tech in 1989. Many people were then unaware (I would say "normal users") of the paper clip method of ejection. Therefore, until they had the drive fixed, they would leave the floppy in the drive and shutdown the computer that way. Indeed, you often see Macs sold on EBAY in this condition too, with the boot floppy "stuck" in the internal drive because the seller doesn't know how to (or doesn't care to) remove it. Even so, the machine still boots and files on the boot floppy are still there, intact.
It is important that I mention I have young children. They don't know how to use a computer properly and they have shutdown and restarted my old Macs with the floppy still in the drive. Again, I've never lost data. But such is only logical as this is a floppy not a hard disk. There was nothing in a "cache that needs to be written to disk" in those days that I am aware of (certainly not in the days of System 1.0). And so, if you lost anything when you shutdown with a floppy in the drive, it would be unsaved changes in whatever app you had open at the time.
One last point to note is that Apple spent a lot of money on study groups in the early days. They paid average people to sit down and use Apple machines to see how usable those machines were. I therefore have little doubt Apple saw people shutdown early Macs without first having ejected the disk. But perhaps one could then argue that was why Apple later added the Shutdown command. I don't know.
I don't say all this to defend the practice of leaving a floppy in the drive. Of course not. But I just wish to point out my experience for the benefit of those intensely studying the issue. More often than not, one need not have heart failure of your old Mac suddenly powers off with a floppy still in the drive.
I can only add that some Mac 128's and 512's even in the early days developed problems that prevented the internal drive from ejecting the floppy. I know this because I used to work for the now defunct MicroAge Computers as a service tech in 1989. Many people were then unaware (I would say "normal users") of the paper clip method of ejection. Therefore, until they had the drive fixed, they would leave the floppy in the drive and shutdown the computer that way. Indeed, you often see Macs sold on EBAY in this condition too, with the boot floppy "stuck" in the internal drive because the seller doesn't know how to (or doesn't care to) remove it. Even so, the machine still boots and files on the boot floppy are still there, intact.
It is important that I mention I have young children. They don't know how to use a computer properly and they have shutdown and restarted my old Macs with the floppy still in the drive. Again, I've never lost data. But such is only logical as this is a floppy not a hard disk. There was nothing in a "cache that needs to be written to disk" in those days that I am aware of (certainly not in the days of System 1.0). And so, if you lost anything when you shutdown with a floppy in the drive, it would be unsaved changes in whatever app you had open at the time.
One last point to note is that Apple spent a lot of money on study groups in the early days. They paid average people to sit down and use Apple machines to see how usable those machines were. I therefore have little doubt Apple saw people shutdown early Macs without first having ejected the disk. But perhaps one could then argue that was why Apple later added the Shutdown command. I don't know.
I don't say all this to defend the practice of leaving a floppy in the drive. Of course not. But I just wish to point out my experience for the benefit of those intensely studying the issue. More often than not, one need not have heart failure of your old Mac suddenly powers off with a floppy still in the drive.