Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!purdue!decwrl!ucbvax!dewey.soe.berkeley.edu!oster
From: oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu (David Phillip Oster)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Scrap Management, User Preferences
Message-ID: <28905@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 26 Apr 89 04:08:06 GMT
References: <1833@etive.ed.ac.uk>
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu.UUCP (David Phillip Oster)
Organization: School of Education, UC-Berkeley
Lines: 33

In article <1833@etive.ed.ac.uk> nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Nick Rothwell) writes:
>(i)	Scrap Management. I've implemented CUT/COPY/PASTE/CLEAR (together
>	with UNDO and REDO for all of these... it wasn't easy...). But,
>	I'm only interested (for now) in cutting and pasting my own private
>	kinds of objects. So, I've done it myself, with a couple of Handles
>	for the clipboard and such like. Is there anything wrong with this?
>	Why should I use the scrap manager for things which aren't TEXT or
>	PICT, and therefore don't make sense for anybody else?

If you externalize your scrap, and use the scrap manager, even if it is a
private type, the user can save scraps on the scrapbook. That can be very
convenient for the user.  By rights, you should put a dual representation
on the scrapbook: a TEXT, say,  and your private type. That way the user
can see some difference between two scraps from your program.

>(ii)	User preferences: what's the official sanctioned way of saving user
>	preferences in an application? A data file in the System Folder? A
>	resource file? The data fork of the application? I personally prefer
>	this last option, although it won't work on shared or protected
>	volumes.

A file, either data or resoruce, that you find using poor-man's-search-path,
is the recommended way to go. That way, if you're application has been
marked read only, and is being shared over a net, each user can have their
own preferences in their own system folder.  Or, you can encourage users
to double click on "Stationery" files.  This solution is better, since it
allows the user the effect of multiple preferences files (say two people
share one mac.)


--- David Phillip Oster            --"Bush says he wants to be our 'education'
Arpa: oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu --president. Well, He's our most intellectual
Uucp: ucbvax!oster%dewey.soe.berkeley.edu --president in 8 years."--Swaine