Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!lsr
From: lsr@Apple.COM (Larry Rosenstein)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: System 7 aliases and grouping
Message-ID: <13893@goofy.Apple.COM>
Date: 6 Jun 91 00:14:26 GMT
References: <5001@ryn.mro4.dec.com> <1991May31.081544.14216@silvlis.com> <1991Jun5.024448.17286@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Organization: Object Based Systems, Apple Computer, Inc.
Lines: 42

In article <1991Jun5.024448.17286@m.cs.uiuc.edu> gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Don Gillies) writes:

>The "drop to launch" function of system 7.0 is ok, but how can certain
>applications pre-specify exactly which file types they accept?
>Sometimes, only the user knows if an application can accept a certain
>file type (i.e. a GIF created by some weirdo gif view with a weirdo

A GIF reader can claim to handle any file type, and then ignore ones that
aren't GIF files.  That's what most of the programs do now.  With
Understudy, you can configure an app to handle the type '****'.

>type).  This, unfortunately, is another example of "Backwardsware"
>(loss of functionality) from Apple.

Perhaps this was done to support the Startup Items folder.  If you place an
application and a document there, you probably want to open each icon
individually.  By making this change, the things in the Startup Items folder
behave as if you did a Select All, followed by Open.

>I was hoping that some day the finder would allow you to select and
>launch a group of icons in DIFFERENT places (i.e. while holding down
>shift, you could extend the selection to on icons in different folders

What would it mean to drag that kinds of selection?  Some files would be
copied and others moved?  Or would you always copy (changing the semantics
of dragging an icon to another place on the same volume).

How do you display such a selection when some of the item may be in obscured
or closed windows?  It sounds like an easy feature to implement, but when
you start to think about it you run into issues such as these that have to
be resolved.

You can select files in different places by using the outline view (if on
the same volume) or by first dragging them onto the desktop and then using
Put Away.  If you want to open those files, then you can also create aliases
to them and put all the aliases in one folder.

-- 
Larry Rosenstein, Apple Computer, Inc.

lsr@apple.com
(or AppleLink: Rosenstein1)