DICKSON@HARTFORD.BITNET (10/12/87)
I had heard, when I got the new system disk, that it would work like the Mac Finder in the respect that by clicking on, say, a MultiScribe document, it would automatically run MultiScribe and open that document. However, when I try this, it says "An application cannot be found for this document." I am using version 1 of MultiScribe. Is this the problem, or is there something I don't know that I need to do to make this work? (I think maybe a small manual would have been nice with the new disk). Bill Dickson
keith@apple.UUCP (Keith Rollin) (10/17/87)
In article <8710121109.aa19148@SMOKE.BRL.ARPA> DICKSON@HARTFORD.BITNET writes: >I had heard, when I got the new system disk, that it would work like the Mac >Finder in the respect that by clicking on, say, a MultiScribe document, it >would automatically run MultiScribe and open that document. However, when >I try this, it says "An application cannot be found for this document." I >am using version 1 of MultiScribe. Is this the problem, or is there something >I don't know that I need to do to make this work? (I think maybe a small >manual would have been nice with the new disk). > >Bill Dickson This will work to a limited extent. There is really no way for the Finder to know what documents were created with what application. If you double click on a TXT file, it could have been created with any number of applications; which one do you choose? You may ask, "Well, the Macintosh can do it. Now that the GS has a Macintosh interface, why can't I launch a document on the GS like on the Mac?" Unfortunately, we could ony go so far. The Macintosh maintains a series of links between an application and its documents. Because of the nature of ProDOS, we could not extend this nicety to the GS Finder. The GS Finder _will_ do an implicit launch in some cases, though. For instance, if you double click on an AppleSoft program, BASIC.SYSTEM will be loaded, and your program will be run. If you double-click on an AppleWorks document, the Finder will attempt to find AppleWorks and run it (it will not automatically load your document, though). Applications can be run in these 2 cases because AppleSoft and AppleWorks files are saved with very specific file types attached to them; it is very clear to the Finder when you click on one of those files. I hope this clears things up. -- Keith Rollin amdahl\ Sales Technical Support pyramid!sun !apple!keith Apple Computer decwrl/ Disclaimer: I read this board for fun, not profit. Anything I say is from the result of reading magazines, hacking, and soaking my head in acid.
ranger@ecsvax.UUCP (Rick N. Fincher) (10/17/87)
Multiscribe and other progrograms won't run when their data files are double- clicked because Apple released the finder too late for the vendors to include feature. Apple is also trying to standardize the filetype numbers so that each program has a different number. This prevents, say, WordPerfect runing when you double click on a Multiscribe document. There is an icon editor available now too, so that applications and data files can have custom icons. Rick Fincher ranger@ecsvax