Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!adobe!heaven!glenn From: glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us (Glenn Reid) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: How do you find all of an Apps possible defaults. Message-ID: <322@heaven.woodside.ca.us> Date: 13 Nov 90 18:04:31 GMT References: Reply-To: glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us (Glenn Reid) Organization: RightBrain Software, Woodside, CA Lines: 34 In article declan@remus.rutgers.edu (Declan McCullagh/LZ) writes: >In article , velasco@beowulf.ucsd.edu (Gabriel Velasco) writes: >> In particular, how do I find all of the possible defaults for something >> like Workspace or Edit. I found as least some of them for Terminal and >> Shell in the on-line documentation at one time, but I can't remember >> where it was. The names of the files when you use the Digital >> Librarian aren't very useful. > >"dread -l" will do the trick (next time, you might want to read the >man pages first before posting a question to the net at large). No, "dread -l" will not do the trick (and I will resist the temptation to point out that next time, you might want to read the question before posting to the net at large :-) The question was to find ALL of the possible defaults. "dread -l" will only show you the defaults that have been set already, not the ones that potentially might be set if you only knew about them. For example, Mail has an option to use Emacs-style key bindings, but you won't find that out by using "dread -l", because it isn't in there. You have to find out about it by reading the net. [Incidentally, you can turn it on with "dwrite Mail KeyBindings YES"]. Unfortunately, it is the responsibility of the application itself to make its defaults known, and there is no general way to find out. The correct way to do this is to have a Preferences panel and to make all of the preferences configurable from inside the App, but there are always a few hidden goodies that the programmer didn't want to make into a feature (I guess). -- Glenn Reid RightBrain Software glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us PostScript/NeXT developers ..{adobe,next}!heaven!glenn 415-851-1785