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From: daf@cs.brown.edu (David A. Fedor)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: Death to the Finder ?
Message-ID: <72883@brunix.UUCP>
Date: 20 Apr 91 05:34:36 GMT
References: <1954@camex.COM> <1955@camex.COM> <1956@camex.COM> <1957@camex.COM>
Sender: news@brunix.UUCP
Reply-To: daf@cs.brown.edu (David A. Fedor)
Organization: Brown University Department of Computer Science
Lines: 22


YES it is possible, and desirable to kill the Finder in system 7.  I am
now running a finder which has a very convenient "Quit" item at the bottom
of the file menu... just like any normal app.  When that is hit, the finder
calmly cleans up and exits.  As Owen said, when the last application is
quit, the finder will start up automatically (so as to avoid any meta-
physical issues).  Hey, that's the same thing that happened pre-7.0.
 
I shall, in spare time, throw together an app which can install this handy
menu item into the finder.  At around the same time, I'll write something
that gives the finder the ability to open some arbitrary app when you
try to open a document for which the creater can't be found.  As lots of
you know, if you double-click a text doc, it asks if you want to open it with
TeachText.  Like now, double-clicking a stuffit archive (I don't have stuffit)
will ask me if I want to open it with Compact Pro.  As far as I can tell, this
can be done with any number of document types.

If anyone cares enough to clamour, I can tell you how to do these things.
You might want to wait a few weeks, until the final system 7 appears.  Then
I can be sure that the program will work as expected.

-Dave Fedor