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From: hodas@saul.cis.upenn.edu (Josh Hodas)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Gripes about System 7.0
Message-ID: <36320@netnews.upenn.edu>
Date: 25 Jan 91 15:34:09 GMT
References: <11827@goofy.Apple.COM> <5659@idunno.Princeton.EDU> <11848@goofy.Apple.COM> <5691@idunno.Princeton.EDU>
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Reply-To: hodas@saul.cis.upenn.edu (Josh Hodas)
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In article <5691@idunno.Princeton.EDU> bskendig@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Brian Kendig) writes:

... [lots of current argument deleted]
>
>My point is that the Finder has all the important information (that
>the file is a MacWrite file, and Word can read MacWrite files), but it
>doesn't bother to look to see that Word can be used.


Since when does the finder know that Word is capable of opening a
MacWrite file?  I didn't know they had built a universal code analyzer
into the System 7 finder :-).  

Now, one option that would solve this is to have a new BNDL like resource in
the Application which lists all the file/creator pairs an app can open.
The finder could cache this info just as it does icons.  Of course the problem
then is how to resolve conflicts when multiple apps can open the document.

Also, this gets complicated when the ability to open a file type is an
external feature (ala Claris XTND's) rather than built into the app itself.


Josh
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