hcook@polyslo.UUCP (Harold E. Cook) (10/02/87)
Here are two generally unrelated questions (maybe): First, can someone tell me what the most recent version of Kermit for the mac is and how to get it given that I have access to only usenet? Second, I was using my data frame the other noght and had a really strange problem I would like to share. I double clicked on a folder icon and the Mac proceeded to open the file as it normally does. But after the folder opened, the mouse quit responding (ie I could not move the pointer on the screen). I could still click on the file where the pointer was (it reversed the background) but could not double click to open the file. After pressing the handy dandy reset switch, I clicked on the folder again, but opened it from the file menu, and low and behold everything worked fine! Well, to make a long story short, I discovered that there was a file in the directory which must have been corrupted somehow (I suspect the directory entry). After, a long process of moving files, I happened to move this peticular file to another folder and the problem followed it. After removing the file everything seems to be OK now. My question is this, is this a common problem? If so where do I go to get it fixed? Apple for the system/finder or Supermac for the driver/drive? One more thing, I am using finder version 5.3 and whatever system came with it. Any help with either of these two questions would be much appreciated, and as usual, mail via the above path would be best. I will summarize to the net if there is enough interest. Thank You...
dplatt@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA (Dave Platt) (10/09/87)
Posting-Front-End: GNU Emacs 18.41.7 of Fri Aug 28 1987 on teknowledge-vaxc (berkeley-unix) The latest version of MacKermit is 0.8(35). I mailed a three-part posting of the BinHex to the comp.binaries.mac address over a month ago, and a "did this get there?" followup last week. No response to either, and it hasn't appeared in the comp.binaries.mac newsgroup. I'm not sure what happened to it... perhaps the path to the newsgroup moderator is broken somewhere (I mailed c/o wrl.dec.com, I believe). The "mouse freezup" problem has been discussed before in this newsgroup and/or Info-Mac. As I recall, it can be triggered by damage to the resource fork of an application file (or any other sort of file that has the "bundle" bit set). The finder attempts to locate the bundle and icon of the file, and becomes seriously confused while attempting to display the window within which the file exists. One way to identify the offending file is to use a program called DeskCheck, which examines the icons, bundles, and other information in all files on a particular volume and identifies those files whose resources don't adhere to the standards. You can probably find DeskCheck in a comp.binaries.mac archive, or get a copy from a friendly, well-stocked Mac BBS or user-group library. As far as avoiding this problem: if you're downloading a MacBinary file from a BBS or mainframe and the download aborts prematurely, or if you run BinHex on an encoded file and the translation fails (CRC error, premature end-of-file, etc.), you should use a desk accessory such as Delete File or DeskTop to delete the resulting partially-build Mac file ->before<- exiting back to the Finder... a partially-built application file could have a munged resource fork, and cause the Finder to enter a state of acute confusion when it tries to add the file's bundle to the desktop file.