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From: bskendig@dry.Princeton.EDU (Brian Kendig)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Gripes about System 7.0
Message-ID: <5659@idunno.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 24 Jan 91 18:02:51 GMT
References: <20283@unix.SRI.COM> <5611@idunno.Princeton.EDU> <11827@goofy.Apple.COM>
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In article <11827@goofy.Apple.COM> lsr@Apple.com (Larry Rosenstein) writes:
>In article <5611@idunno.Princeton.EDU>, bskendig@dry.Princeton.EDU (Brian Kendig) writes:
>> Isn't that being fixed in System 7.0?  Serious question here --
>> anyone?  If it's not, and even if the dialogs complain something like
>> "The aplication that created this document can not be found" and exit
>> instead of offering to open it with another application that can read
>> TEXT files -- THEN, I'd bash a few fruitcakes at Apple.
>
>In the current System 7 release several things are done.  If you try to open
>a TEXT or PICT document and the application isn't found, the Finder will
>offer to open it with TeachText.

And if I try to open, say, a MacWrite document, there is a built-in
way to tell the Mac to open it with Microsoft Word, right?  I mean,
it's certainly not going to tell me the obvious that it can't find
MacWrite, is it?

>It is possible to add a resource to a document that will provide more 
>descriptive information.  One such resource identifies the name of the
>application that created it, so at least the user will know that.  A
>different resource is used for documents that aren't supposed to be opened
>from the Finder.

Will the Finder be smart enough to add a resource to, say, the Desktop
file to record that all MPNT (or whatever the creator code is) files
are created by MacPaint?  And what good is this information, save for
seeing "MacPaint document" in the directory window, unless it knows
that I want to open all MacPaint documents with SuperPaint instead?

It just bothers me that the method of finding an application to open a
document should be handled a wee bit more thoroughly -- especiall now
that practically any word processor can open a file from practically
any other word processor.  Same with paint programs, and spreadsheets,
and everything else...

     << Brian >>

| Brian S. Kendig      \ Macintosh |   Engineering,   | bskendig             |
| Computer Engineering |\ Thought  |  USS Enterprise  | @phoenix.Princeton.EDU
| Princeton University |_\ Police  | -= NCC-1701-D =- | @PUCC.BITNET         |
"It's not that I don't have the work to *do* -- I don't do the work I *have*."