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From: oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu (David Phillip Oster)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: editing default window size
Message-ID: <21256@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Tue, 13-Oct-87 15:29:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.21256
Posted: Tue Oct 13 15:29:16 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 15-Oct-87 05:10:04 EDT
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Reply-To: oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu.UUCP (David Phillip Oster)
Organization: School of Education, UC-Berkeley
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Apple feels that it is important to let the user choose the settings
for new windows.

If you look at the section of Apple's User Interface Guidlines where
MultiFinder is discussed, you will see that Apple now expects
applications programs to store, with each document, where it was on
the screen. That way, when the user opens the document again, it will
show up on the same place on the screen. (The application has to check
that window size and position are reasonable for the current display,
since the user may have created the file on a machine with a big
display and moved it to a machine with a small display.) The current
version of the Finder does this.

In my programs, I give each of my documents a resource: Type=WIND
ID=128, and update it each time the user saves the file. I'd like to
see this convention catch on.  When the user creates a new document,
its position comes from a resource Type=WIND ID=128 in the program
itself. This resource gets updated whenever the user does a Close or
Save. When the user wants a new window, this window gets used for its
initial position. (If there already is a window on that spot, I adjust
the position of the new window slightly before showing it to the
user.)

My newer programs are compatible with networks and multiple users.
They keep special files, called Stationery Pads (as per the tech note
on AppleShare compatiblity) that hold settings like the initial
position, font, size, and even contents of documents. If you open a
stationery pad, you get an new, untitled copy of the pad that is a
document. (like tearing the top sheet off a real, paper pad.)  To
change the setting of a stationery pad, you must explicitly set up a
document the way you want and do a "Save As Stationery Pad."


All of this is detailed in my article: How to Write a TEXT editor,
part II, Data File compatibility, coming soon.

--- David Phillip Oster            --A Sun 3/60 makes a poor Macintosh II.
Arpa: oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu --A Macintosh II makes a poor Sun 3/60.
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