Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!bu-cs!dartvax!eleazar.dartmouth.edu!earleh
From: earleh@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Earle R. Horton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: A problem with MPW....
Message-ID: <15142@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Date: 21 Aug 89 22:05:18 GMT
References: <13644@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU> <15076@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> <13653@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU> <34167@apple.Apple.COM>
Sender: news@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU
Reply-To: earleh@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Earle R. Horton)
Organization: Thayer School of Engineering
Lines: 32

In article <34167@apple.Apple.COM> keith@Apple.COM (Keith Rollin) writes:
>In article <13653@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU> dorourke@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (David M. O'Rourke) writes:
>>earleh@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Earle R. Horton) writes:
>>>     Show the computer who's boss (you) by defining your own pipe
>>>file.  Use a unique name for the file, and remember to delete it when
>>>done if you don't want it hanging around.
>>
>>  Again I thank Mr. Horton for taking the time to respond, now I'm wondering
>>why this "bug" is in translate, has anyone else found a similar bug in
>>any of the other MPW tools??
>
>Obligatory "It's not a bug, it's a feature." Actually, more of a poorly
>documented limitation. If I recall the circumstances correctly, you are trying
>to use the same Pipe file at the same time (ie, using a pipe command withing
>the single backquotes). This, MPW cannot do.
>
     Actually, that has nothing whatever to do with it.  MPW Shell creates
multiple pipe files in this situation, and translate gets the second
or third one as its input.  Then it says:

### translate: "hd:mpw:MPW.Pipe-2" is not a TEXT file.

     Translation: "Screw you."  Someone has specifically coded the
translate tool to reject any input file whose type is not TEXT.  MPW
Pipe files are type '    ' and creator '    ', even though they are created
by the Shell and almost always contain text of some sort.

     I don't understand the rationale behind this, and I hate to
condemn something when not in possession of all the facts, so let me
say this regarding the matter:  "This appears stupid."

Earle R. Horton