jtn@zodiac.ADS.COM (John Nelson) (01/07/90)
In article <8315@cbnewsm.ATT.COM> mls@cbnewsm.ATT.COM (mike.siemon) writes: > >The defensiveness of Mac fanatics about the oddities of the system is >obscuring the point. It is particularly obnoxious to be told that all Yes... I'm tired of the responses people are posting like "well just find your favorite editor and get into it and select the file you want to open and open it etc" when clearly the issue here is that the user DOES NOT want to go searching for an appropriate application. Rather he wants to simply double-click on the file and open it. Period. >The example of reading an arbitrary file is just that, an example of a >much larger general problem. If I have a file I may want to use it in >a number of different ways, totally unconstrained by the file's origin >or by my intentions when I create the file. I agree that this is a problem but a problem that can also be programmed around. I see no reaon why a DA could not be written to display a list of applications in a pull-down menu that one can immediately select and open your signature-less, creator-less file with. I also see no reason why the APple Finder could not be modified to take such unidentified files and apply a user-selecteable application to them... particularly if they have the type specified as "TEXT." Or how about a ResEdit DA that allows you to quickly and simply change the signature and creator types in arbitrary files? POWERFUL! The problem is that the file you speak of arrived onyour machine and was not created by any method particularly native to your machine ... i.e. it's just a text file that arrived through some means. It would be REALLY nice if the program you used had a menu entry that allowed you to specify the target creator and signature when the file is created on your system. That way the appropriate application can be run (most notably BinHex or Stuffit). Better yet the application you used should give the file a TeachText creator if none other is specified since TeachText is available on the system installation disks. There's ways around it that clever programmers can devise and still maintain the consistancey of the Mac and broaden it's generality. -- John T. Nelson UUCP: sun!sundc!potomac!jtn Advanced Decision Systems Internet: jtn@potomac.ads.com 1500 Wilson Blvd #512; Arlington, VA 22209-2401 (703) 243-1611
hui@joplin.mpr.ca (Michael Hui) (01/07/90)
I have received 15 mails so far, averaging 80% hate mail and 20% informative mail. The hate mail all had the word "stupid" in it. I use an Apollo at work, runing IC design CAD programs. On the keyboard, there is a function key labeled "READ", and if you hit it, it prompts you for the file name to read. Or, you can program one of your mouse buttons to invoke "READ" on the file name your mouse pointer is over. If the file does not appear to be ASCII, the AEGIS Window Manager tells you so, politely. I use a Mac for documentation purposes only, and only have limited time to go through MS Word's or MacWrite's manual. I have accumulated at least 10 hours reading through MS Word's manual, and do not remember coming across its creator code being listed in the doc. So now you tell me I should buy a Mac to do heavy duty CAD work? No. Sorry, NO. And, to further perpetuate my "ignorant" and "stupid" mentality, I forecast that the Macintosh family will not be the dominant engineering workstation platform in the next five years.
ltf@attctc.Dallas.TX.US (Lance Franklin) (01/08/90)
In article <10308@zodiac.ADS.COM> jtn@zodiac.ADS.COM (John Nelson) writes: >Better yet the application you >used should give the file a TeachText creator if none other is >specified since TeachText is available on the system installation >disks. Well, there is a problem with TeachText...there's a limit to the length of the file you can feed it...try a 220k text file sometimes (like forinstance a capture from a long session) What's needed is a general purpose file lister that works with TEXT-type files...It should have no file-length limits, work with a non-proportional font (and perhaps look at the first few k's of the file to determine the size of the font for the best line length for the file), should have a horizontal slider for those extra-long lines, include a string-search capability and a hex display option...oh, and a couple of different filters for the input would be nice...an ansi-control filter, a bit-8 filter and a non-printable character filter would do the job. Oh, and a DA version that could display any of a number of files (picked from a list kept in a document in the system folder) would be nice for keeping those documents around that you reference often...program references, BBS lists, phone numbers, etc. Lance -- +-------------------------+ +------------------------------------------+ | Lance T Franklin | | "And all who heard should see them there, | ltf@attctc.DALLAS.TX.US | | And all should cry, Beware! Beware! +-------------------------+ + His flashing eyes, his floating hair!"
andyp@gvgpvd.GVG.TEK.COM (Andy Peterman) (01/09/90)
In article <10882@attctc.Dallas.TX.US> ltf@attctc.Dallas.TX.US (Lance Franklin) writes: >What's needed is a general purpose file lister that works with TEXT-type >files...It should have no file-length limits, work with a non-proportional >font (and perhaps look at the first few k's of the file to determine the >size of the font for the best line length for the file), should have a >horizontal slider for those extra-long lines, include a string-search >capability and a hex display option...oh, and a couple of different filters >for the input would be nice...an ansi-control filter, a bit-8 filter and >a non-printable character filter would do the job. Take a look at MacTREE Plus. It does almost everything you ask (no filters). It will also view some formatted text files (MacWrite, Word) picture files (MacPaint, PICT) and others. Andy Peterman