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From: folta@tove.cs.umd.edu (Wayne Folta)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: User definable objects in Finder 7.0
Message-ID: <33872@mimsy.umd.edu>
Date: 2 May 91 15:47:02 GMT
References: <1991May2.115300.2662@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE>
Sender: news@mimsy.umd.edu
Reply-To: folta@tove.cs.umd.edu (Wayne Folta)
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 30

>I thought, "a neat feature, what happens if I 'drop' things into it?"
>Guess what, Resedit opened with the given file.
>I now wonder if that is a thing available to all applications, or if it is a
>special resedit feature. And second, will that enable programmers to establish
>things on the desktop that work like the trashcan? (e.g. for mail out boxes?)

I have seen others describe this feature. It sounds like it is equivalent
to shift-selecting the document and the application, then double-clicking
the application. This invokes the application on the selected document(s) 
in System 6.

Even if this is a shortcut for an already-existent feature, it certainly
changes the user's perspective on what is happening. From the user's
viewpoint, the program could do trashcan-like things: you could certainly
write a progam that, if it is invoked on a file moves the file to some
hidden directory and if it is invoked with no file displays the hidden
directory -- a trashcan-like equivalent.

If System 7.0 allows you to hide or remove the trashcan from the desktop,
you could write a trashcan-work-alike that examines the files you drop
on it and files them in different directories, depending on their color.
Then an INIT could trash these directories on differing schedules: the green-
file folder every night, the orange-file folder weekly, and the red-file
folder never.

Wayne
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Wayne Folta          (folta@cs.umd.edu  128.8.128.8)