[comp.sys.mac] Multifinder Restart/Shutdown, Quit

joachim@iravcl.ira.uka.de (07/03/88)

Multifinder 1.0 and prehaps above (System 6.0 didn't arrive in Germany
until now) contains a feature that allows any program to tell Multifinder, 
how to Quit. This feature is especially useful in an environment where
localized (e.g. German) programs and English programs are used.

Multifinder contains two resources 'mstr' 100 and 101, that tell it, which 
menu and which item within that menu to pull to make a program Quit. I assume 
that a similar resource will tell the new Multifinder which item to use to 
Open a file. (I have been told that MPW is the only program supporting this 
feature so far, MPW uses Open [ellipsis] instead of Open...).

However, Multifinder uses these resources only if they are not overridden in 
the application. It does explicitly search for the two resources in the 
application resource file, then in the Multifinder resource file.

This feature allows the programmer/localizer/user to make allmost any
application to support the Quit/Open feature. I think that these resources 
should be added during development, because you cannot assume that an English
program is used in an English environment only.

I got this knowledge from disassembly/testing, not from inside Apple. Since 
it is not documented anywhere, you cannot count on this feature to remain 
unchanged.

Joachim Lindenberg, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Karlsruhe
Sommerstrasse 4, 7500 Karlsruhe 1, Federal Republic of Germany
joachim@ira.uka.de, joachim@germany.csnet, ..!mcvax!unido!uka!joachim

thecloud@pnet06.cts.com (Ken Mcleod) (07/06/88)

 joachim@iravcl.ira.uka.de (Joachim Lindenberg) writes:
>
>I got this knowledge from disassembly/testing, not from inside Apple.
Since
>it is not documented anywhere, you cannot count on this feature to remain
>unchanged.

The MultiFinder 'mstr' resources have been supplemented in version 6.0
with 'mst#' resources, which override the names used when MultiFinder
looks for the "Quit" item. This allows you to store strings for multiple
languages! Resources 'mstr' id=102 and 'mstr' id=103 now override the
default "File" and "Open..." strings, respectively.

And it is documented...apparently the System Software 6.0 Change History
hasn't arrived yet, either.

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