Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!lsr
From: lsr@Apple.COM (Larry Rosenstein)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: Opening "foreign" documents in Standard Open
Message-ID: <8980@goofy.Apple.COM>
Date: 4 Jul 90 02:12:54 GMT
References: <1990Jun18.223436.7497@Neon.Stanford.EDU>
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
Lines: 51

In article <1990Jun18.223436.7497@Neon.Stanford.EDU> philip@pescadero.stanford.EDU (Philip Machanick) writes:

>more idea... It seems to me that, since MultiFinder was introduced,
>graying out names of documents belonging to other applications in the
>standard open dialog has become obsolete. How about the following

There are no grayed out files in the Open dialog.  The grayed out files
appear in the Save As dialog, in order to provide some context to the user
as to what the folder contains.  

>1. documents created by current application displayed in bold
>-  double-click, or click on Open: as before
>2. documents created by other applications, but of a type OK to open

I'm not sure what the point of bolding these documents would be.  I can see
providing some kind of filtering, to cut down the number of documents that
appear in the list.  (For example, some applications have popup menus to
filter by file type.)

>-  OPTION-double-click, or additional button Open into Owner: treat as if
>   double-clicked in Finder (i.e., either open the application, or
>   context switch to application and simulate Open)

I dislike the fact the the Open command in one application results in
switching to another application.  

>3. documents belonging to another application not possible to open from
>   here displayed in italics; when selected, display owner name in Open

One problem is that in the Open dialog you would see all the documents, with
no filtering.  It would make it much harder to find the document you were
looking for.  

I think you're attempting to replace the Finder with an extended Standard
File, and I'm not sure that's a good idea.  I think it's similar to trying
to replace the Finder with an extended Apple menu.  

Both features (Standard File and the Apple menu) are artifacts of the
original Macintosh, and both should probably be replaced by something that
fits better with the System 7 environment.  

For example, you really don't need the Open dialog at all; users should just
double click on the icon in the Finder.  (That doesn't always work today
because MultiFinder has to fake out the application.  But eventually
applications will support the standard AppleEvent to open files.)

-- 
		 Larry Rosenstein,  Object Specialist
 Apple Computer, Inc.  20525 Mariani Ave, MS 46-B  Cupertino, CA 95014
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