Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!agate!shelby!polya!ali From: ali@polya.Stanford.EDU (Ali T. Ozer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Application switches Message-ID: <9472@polya.Stanford.EDU> Date: 25 May 89 18:32:53 GMT References: <2160@blake.acs.washington.edu> <1116@garcon.cso.uiuc.edu> Sender: Ali T. Ozer Reply-To: aozer@NeXT.com (Ali Ozer) Organization: . Lines: 69 In article <1116@garcon.cso.uiuc.edu> Steve Dorner writes: >Last time someone wanted to know switches, someone from NeXT said: >"Applications are supposed to have Preferences panels so you don't >have to use dwrite," and "you can use dread to find out switches." > ... >In the absence of real documentation and preferences panels, perhaps >some kind person at NeXT who has collected a large and interesting >defaults database could do a "dread -l" to the net, so we can see what >other interesting things exist. Well, here are some of the defaults provided by some of the apps... Beware that trying to dwrite funny values into these variables might probably crash or confuse some apps. Edit, Shell, and most other apps that support setting of fonts support the Font and FontSize defaults values. For instance, the following combo works for demonstrations on a light valve: dwrite Edit Font Courier-Bold dwrite Edit FontSize 24 I don't think Edit, Shell, and Mail write out the font value when it's changed within the program; however, you can set it as shown above. Edit has plenty other defaults variables, all of which can be set through the Preferences panel. These include "WidthInChars," "HeightInChars," "IndentWidth," "TabWidth," "DeleteBackup," "AutoIndent," ... Workspace Manager provides "LaunchThese," "IconsSnapTo," and "CoreLimit," along with several others to define the location and size of the initial browser window. I believe "CoreLimit" is the only one not settable through the menus or panels; it allows your programs to dump core when they crash. A useful setting might be: dwrite Workspace CoreLimit 16000000 to allow for core files upto 16 Megs. Some system wide defaults include the infamous "PublicWindowServer," "Printer," and "UnixExpert." These can be set by the Printer app or Preferences. Preferences also has some of its own, such as "HideClock." There are also some "NeXT1" defaults set by Preferences; these include "AutoDimTime," "MouseButtonsTied," and "MouseHandedness." Interface Builder provides four variables, all of which can be set by the Preferences panel in the program. These are "ShowPalettes," "ShowBrowser," "ProjectMake," and "ProjectMain." These take 1/0 values rather than YES/NO (which most other boolean variables use). Webster's defaults variables include "ClosePictures," "ExactMatch," "FontSize," "FullWordIndex," "PrintPictures," "ShowPictures," "ThesaurusOpen," and "DictionaryOpen." These can all be set from within the application. Librarian has "ContentFont," "ContentSize," "SummaryFont," "SummarySize," and "AutoOpen," again all settable through the Preferences panel in the program. All applications also have some other defaults variables whose values are changed by the printer-related panels. These include "Margins," "PaperType," "Resolution," and "Printer." This latter one will override the systemwide "Printer", I believe, to let an app use a different printer. Hope this helps. Ali Ozer, NeXT Developer Support aozer@NeXT.com ps. Oh, and there's one I'm fond of. BreakApp's "HighScore" instance variable stores the high score. You can easily impress your friends with a simple dwrite!