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From: shf@well.UUCP (Stuart H. Ferguson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Standard File Requesters
Summary: filerequester.library
Message-ID: <11583@well.UUCP>
Date: 9 May 89 07:54:49 GMT
References: <0914.AA0914@amigash> <941@sactoh0.UUCP>
Reply-To: shf@well.UUCP (Stuart H. Ferguson)
Distribution: na
Organization: The Blue Planet
Lines: 46

+-- hrlaser@sactoh0.UUCP (Harv R. Laser) writes:
	[ something I consider very telling ... ]
| PathMaster is my absolute favorite file requester. I could name
| a dozen (or 5 dozen) programs I use frequently whose file 
| requesters I'd like to rip out by their roots and replace with
| PathMaster.... 

Yeah, and why not?  File requesters seem to be a religious issue
almost like editors (maybe not that bad :-).  They are also very difficult
to write well, which leaves developers with few alternatives.  The end
result is that almost everyone has almost no programs with file requesters
they like.

There are some PD file requesters -- but what if you don't like them?
ARP provides a file requester in its shared library, which is nice for
developers who don't want to write there own, and can be replaced.
But replacing it requires SetFunction()ing the library, and hoping
for no unexpected interactions.

How about a "filerequester.library?"  It could be spec'ed as having a 
known interface that anyone could write towards -- from both sides.
Developers would have access to a generic file requester from within
their programs, users would see a consistent interface, AND users could
choose the requester they want from as many possible
filerequester.library's as could be written.  You could use the Dillon
fr.library, or the Schwab fr.library, or the RJ ...

There's been some talk on .tech about a requester interface already....

P.S.

Personally, I'd still like to see a file requester that opened up like a 
Workbench drawer with the full functionality.  Double-click other drawers
to browse the directory and double-click your data file to select it.
Or, shift-click to select multiple files.  Why, when there's a graphic
system interface, are there no graphical file requesters?

P.Wishful.Thinking.S.

Why, oh, why is there no workbench.library?  Put some hooks in that 
black box, boys.

I've got libraries one the brain tonight I gues ....
-- 
		Stuart Ferguson		(shf@well.UUCP)
		Action by HAVOC