Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!decwrl!shelby!barry@playfair
From: barry@playfair.STANFORD.EDU (barry)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Something else you can't do on the Mac
Message-ID: <52@playfair.STANFORD.EDU>
Date: 1 Jan 90 23:24:00 GMT
References: <1284@marlin.NOSC.MIL> <970@v7fs1.UUCP> <129727@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> <2702@aecom.yu.edu>
Sender: Barrett P. Eynon <barry@playfair.stanford.edu>
Reply-To: barry@playfair.UUCP (Barrett P. Eynon)
Organization: Stanford University
Lines: 71

In article <2702@aecom.yu.edu> werner@aecom.yu.edu (Craig Werner) writes:
>	I do this a lot.
>	Download a text file.  Now try to display it. On a PC, use type.
>On a Mac, you can't. 

Only if you're clueless.

>	A downloaded text file has no associated application.  

Any good Mac terminal program (Versaterm, CIS Navigator, etc. ) has an
option to define a default creator for downloaded text files, which can
specify any application you desire. Or you are downloading from Unix 
systems and use the mcvert program to convert .hqx files to .bin files, 
you can also use it to make a .bin file from the text file, with any
creator you desire, and then just download the file as a MacBinary file.

>If you double click it, it gives you an error message.

If for some reason neither of the above suffice, you could get the 
HandOff utility, which allows default remappings of file types (and
even file name extensions, if you like) to any applications you desire. 

>	Now you can see the file.  In Multi-finder this is especially
>trivial.  You keep a copy of your favorite word processor around, in
>background, and:
>	1. Switch to the word-processor.
>	2. Go to the file menu, choose open
>	3. Select the file. (Now at this point, you have to remember what
>it was actually called, not just where it was on the desktop.)

Excuse me? I always thought you had to remember the file name for the 
"type" command under MS-DOS, and in fact had to type it out yourself, too.

And if you have the file type set properly, you can just double-click on
the icon, even if your program is already running, and the file will open
in the application.

>	4. You're there, that is in most cases.  I find that a lot of
>text files are tabbed, and our word processor's default is Times-Roman,
>so:
>	4a. Select the entire text
>	5. Go to the font menu, and select Courier.  This usually causes
>wrapping of some sort, so
>	5a. Lower the point size.
>	6. Now, you're there.

Trying to use a word processor application to work with text files is 
using the wrong tool for the job. There are many good text editors on the
Mac, including public domain implementations of emacs, vi, etc. and the 
excellent commercial programs QUED/M and Vantage. With any of these a file
will open in your choice of font and size, and have much more powerful
tools built in for manipulating text than any word processor (except Nisus,
which is a word processor essentially built on top of QUED/M).

It may be that you eventually import your text file into a word processor
for further work. But it is just as likely you might import it into a
spreadsheet or a database, or just use it as a text file. 

>	(This can be partially made into a macro, but the font/ps 
>conversion step in much slower within the macro, than outside. 
>I don't know why.)

Because you're using the wrong programs.

>	Yet another reason to hate the Mac.

As usual, hate is the result of ignorance. Please attempt to cure
yours before displaying it to us further.
Barry Eynon
barry@playfair.stanford.edu        -ARPA
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