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From: casseres@apple.com (David Casseres)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Text file madness on the Mac.
Message-ID: <6027@internal.Apple.COM>
Date: 5 Jan 90 17:21:13 GMT
References: <2706@aecom.yu.edu>
Sender: usenet@Apple.COM
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
Lines: 23

In article <2706@aecom.yu.edu> werner@aecom.yu.edu (Craig Werner) writes:
>         This started when I mentioned the simple fact given a text file
> (say from a download) you can't display its contents at the level of the
> Desktop.
>         You can't.
>         True, you can display it. And I do it all the time.  It involves
> a 7 step sequence using software I have readily available, and it is more
> complex than Unix 'more' or even a PC's 'type.'

It is true that you can't display a TEXT file from the Desktop, using 
today's Finder.  The Finder is just a program and could be replaced with a 
program that has its own facilities for displaying TEXT files, or knows 
that you want to use TeachText (or MPW, or whatever) for TEXT files.  This 
is a limitation of the present Finder, not of the Mac itself or the system 
software.

As for a 7-step sequence, I don't know why you have to do that many steps. 
 Launching TeachText and using it to open the file is a lot fewer steps 
than that, and it is certainly not more complex than "more" or "type."

David Casseres

Exclaimer:  Hey!