Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!purdue!bu-cs!dartvax!eleazar.dartmouth.edu!earleh
From: earleh@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Earle R. Horton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Is multifinder or finder running??
Message-ID: <17864@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Date: 11 Dec 89 15:03:20 GMT
References: <17708@ea.ecn.purdue.edu> <9190@hoptoad.uucp> <17695@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> <9247@hoptoad.uucp>
Sender: news@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU
Reply-To: earleh@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Earle R. Horton)
Organization: Between jobs.
Lines: 40

In article <9247@hoptoad.uucp> tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney) writes:
...
>>In article <9190@hoptoad.uucp> tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney) writes:
>>>...  Second, if the
>>>system is 6.0.x, then MultiFinder may or may not be running; check it
>>>by seeing whether the last entry in the Apple menu is "About
>>>MultiFinder..."
>
>In article <17695@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> earleh@eleazar.dartmouth.edu
>(Earle R. Horton) writes:
>>The last check won't do much for you if the last item in the Apple
>>menu is "A-propos de MultiFinder," "Uber den MultiFinder," or...
>
>Sure it will.  I hope you aren't running around embedding string
>constants in your code!  At the time when you update all the STR# and
>STR resources for the new language, you would also change the string
>for "About MultiFinder..."
>
>>You cannot get this information from the Apple menu.
>
>Sure you can, if you're programming your strings correctly.

     Well meant, but bad advice.  Even if your application is properly
localized for all the international systems in existence, you have no
guarantee that your customers will use the same international version
of your program as they do System Tools.  There are also users who insist
on more customization than this, and who even modify the Finder menus
to contain humorous messages not intended by the system designers at
Apple!  (I have never done this. :-))  Such a user is well within her
rights to modify the "About MultiFinder..." message without sending
notification to all software developers from whom she might purchase
products.

     Looking at something in the user interface to determine what system
features are present is almost as bad as asking the user directly, and
should be avoided.  Use one of the undocumented programmatic interface
tricks discussed here, instead.  Better yet, write programs that are
compatible with all system configurations!

Earle R. Horton