[comp.sys.mac.programmer] ~FinderToFront

bitting-douglas@cs.yale.edu (Douglas Bitting) (06/10/91)

Perhaps I should have only mailed this to Michael Peirce (thanks for the hack,
BTW), but I thought that I would post it so that all who are trying to write a
nifty little hack to bring the Finder to the Front upon Startup (after loading
other startup items).

Anyway, there is one problem that ~FinderToFront doesn't deal with (as far as I
can tell from its behavior on my 4 MB Mac SE).  That is, upon startup, the Mac
doesn't startup one app, then the next, then the next, etc... instead, what it
does is starts them all up at once (sure, it launches them in alphabetical
order, but the launches are asynchronous).  So, the first one to get loaded
entirely is the first the first to run.  Since I have Z-Term (alias) as one of
my Startup items, it takes the longest to load (as the other Startup Items I
have are much shorter than Z-term... in case that wasn't clear) ... by the time
it finishes loading, ~FinderToFront has long since loaded, run, and exit'd.

So, to the point...

Any hack that wants to successfully bring the Finder to the front after all
apps have loaded must wait for all the apps to load before it starts to execute
the code that brings the finder to the front.  As I am yet to get IM VI, I
don't know if the Process Manager (or whatever) allows an app to easily check
this... but this is (what I think is) needed.

Hope this helps...
--Doug
P.S.  Is there anyway a non developer like myself can get his hands on the
proper #includes for THINK C so I can write programs which are Sys7 savvy?
-- 
Doug Bitting             | "And we know that in all things God works
PO Box 3043 Yale Station |  for the good of those who love him..."
New Haven, CT 06520      |                       --Romans 8:28
bitting@cs.yale.edu      +------------------------------------------