tedj@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Ted Johnson) (10/06/87)
Could someone please tell me what a .Bout file is for? A plain document icon called .Bout appears every now and then in a folder full of PD software. Get Info... claims that it's 0k large, which seems pretty strange. Anyone care to venture forth with an illuminating explanation? -Ted ********************************************************************** Ted C. Johnson Hewlett Packard, Design Technology Center Santa Clara, CA (408)553-3555 UUCP: ...hplabs!hpcea!hpcid!tedj **********************************************************************
olson@endor.harvard.edu (Eric K. Olson) (10/08/87)
In a recent article Ted Johnson writes: >Could someone please tell me what a .Bout file is for? A plain >document icon called .Bout appears every now and then in a folder full >of PD software. Get Info... claims that it's 0k large, which seems pretty >strange. Anyone care to venture forth with an illuminating explanation? > This is a problem with some PD software (most of it quite old). .Bout is the name of one of the serial ports on the Macintosh. If the software tries to open it the wrong way, it will create a file. Also, the SUMacC (Stanford University Mac C - cross compiler, runs on a VAX) compiler, I think, opens this file under cerain circumstances (very few people use this compiler any more). In summary, it's a bug, and can be safely ignored. -Eric Eric K. Olson olson@endor.harvard.edu harvard!endor!olson D0760 (Name) (ArpaNet) (UseNet) (AppleLink)
oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu (David Phillip Oster) (10/08/87)
In article <870003@hpcilzb.HP.COM> tedj@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Ted Johnson) writes: >Could someone please tell me what a .Bout file is for? A plain >document icon called .Bout appears every now and then in a folder full You've uncovered a bug in someone's software. The name ".BOut" not ".Bout" would cause the serial driver (printer port) to be opened for ouput. Driver names, unlike filenames, are case significant. The Macintosh User Interface Guidlines state that users should not be allowed to create files with leading "." characters in their names. For example, if the user tried to save a file as ".Sony", it could open the floppy drive as a raw device and destroy the directory. Most programs have a bug in that they don't check for this and tell the user to type a different name, one without a leading ".". By the way, on the subject of saving files, I was talking to a niave user the other day, and she was confused by the error message "The disk is full, please use a different disk." She said, "I hit 'Save', I don't understand." I told her that if you selected "Save As..." she would get buttons to change drives and eject disks. I got to thinking about her confusion. Two points to make: 1.) Software that confuses people is buggy in the user interface. I also went back to all of my software and rewrote the error handler so if the error condition calls for using a different disk, or ejecting the disk to change the position of the write protect tab, it automatically falls into Save As, with a diagnostic message dialog window on the screen below the Save As... (SFPutFile) window. It would be nice if other developers did the same. ---------------------- 2.) Rule of Thumb: The real people who use our software are dumber that you would possibly believe. That isn't really true. Really they are busy, interested in something else, and they don't have decades of computer reflexes built up. They find computers useful, but not interesting enough to want to learn about computers instead of use that learning time to do something else. They are violently frightened of making a disastrous mistake, and from their point of view disastrous mistakes happen to them all the time. They don't understand the word "debugging" and don't have the skills the word implies for coping with misbehaving systems. They turn in bug reports like "It is refusing to print Chapter 2." instead of "The 'Print File' printer scroll file wants to be larger than the amount of free space on my system drive. How do I get the software to use smaller disk temporary files or write the print file to a different drive?" Cultivate a few naive user friends. You'll learn about flaws in your software designs that your internal mental processes for coping with computers filter out before they reach your conscious mind. --- David Phillip Oster --A Sun 3/60 makes a poor Macintosh II. Arpa: oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu --A Macintosh II makes a poor Sun 3/60. Uucp: {uwvax,decvax,ihnp4}!ucbvax!oster%dewey.soe.berkeley.edu
jww@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU (Joel West) (10/09/87)
In article <870003@hpcilzb.HP.COM>, tedj@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Ted Johnson) writes: > Could someone please tell me what a .Bout file is for? All Macintosh device drivers begin with a period, thus the Device Manager and File Manager should know better than to try to create a file named '.Bout'. I can't explain how you're getting the file. '.BOut', incidentally, is the device a Mac program opens to output to the printer port. -- Joel West (c/o UCSD) Palomar Software, Inc., P.O. Box 2635, Vista, CA 92083 {ucbvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!jww jww@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu So. California: where the ground does the Rocking 'N Rolling for you
gae@osupyr.UUCP (Gerald Edgar) (10/09/87)
In article <870003@hpcilzb.HP.COM> tedj@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Ted Johnson) writes: >Could someone please tell me what a .Bout file is for? A plain >document icon called .Bout appears every now and then in a folder full >of PD software. Get Info... claims that it's 0k large, which seems pretty >strange. Anyone care to venture forth with an illuminating explanation? > Aztec C (at least) calls output to the modem port .Aout and output to the printer port .Bout. So you can do fopen(".Bout","w"); etc. I suppose if you use this construction in the wrong circumstances, or with another compiler, it will create a file called ".Bout". That's my guess ... -- Gerald A. Edgar TS1871@OHSTVMA.bitnet Department of Mathematics edgar@osupyr.UUCP The Ohio State University ...{akgua,gatech,ihnp4,ulysses}!cbosgd!osupyr!gae Columbus, OH 43210 70715,1324 CompuServe
bob@lznh.UUCP (<10000>Bob Lemley) (10/15/87)
In article <870003@hpcilzb.HP.COM>, tedj@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Ted Johnson) writes: > Could someone please tell me what a .Bout file is for? A plain > document icon called .Bout appears every now and then in a folder full > of PD software. The serial port drivers in the Mac system are named ".Aout" and ".Bout". I have also seen this problem and assume that one of the applications attempted to open the driver and opened a file instead.
tedj@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Ted Johnson) (10/16/87)
Mucho gracias for mucho responses! -Ted