Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!jdevoto
From: jdevoto@Apple.COM (Jeanne A. E. DeVoto)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Text file madness on the Mac.
Message-ID: <37640@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 5 Jan 90 23:20:27 GMT
References: <2706@aecom.yu.edu>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 44

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 display a text file "at the level of the Desktop" (which presumably
means "from the Finder") by double-clicking the file. This is a fairly
simple procedure, certainly no more difficult than typing "type" and
a filename.

It is possible, if you try, to create a text file whose creator signature
does not correspond to any application you have available. If you are in
this situation, you can open the file by double-clicking on a text editor
or word processor (they'll all open plain text files) of your choice,
choosing the Open menu item, and picking your file. Not quite as easy,
but not what I'd call difficult either.

>	Over twenty people wrote mail, giving about 15 different ways to
>do this, some of which were quite elegant.  But that's not the point.
>It's a simple task 

True.

>                     and it should have a standard solution.

It does.

>I mean the
>fact that fifteen people have found fifteen different ways to do
>something does not reflect favorably on machine that prides itself on a
>consistent user interface.

I think you are mistaking consistency for the idea that there should be only
one way to do a task. A system can be designed to respond to the same
actions in analogous ways, regardless of context; that's not the same as
designing it so there's only one way to perform a task such as opening
a file.
-- 
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