tom@mims-iris.waterloo.edu (Tom Haapanen) (03/26/91)
Anant Kartik Mithal <akm@obelix.cs.uoregon.edu> writes: > I also feel that the desktop/icon/running application is much better > integrated in the mac [...] For example, in Windows, if you have two > icons for Word for Windows, one in the program manager, and one on the > desktop (representing a running, but iconised version of Word), and > you double click on the icon in the program manager, you get an icon > box that says: > > ---------------------------------------- > | Microsoft Word is already running | > | OK | > ---------------------------------------- > > On the mac, if you double click on the (greyed) icon for Word, you get > back to the running copy. Also, on the Mac, double clicking on a > second word doc gets you into word with the document, with Word for > Windows, you will get the error message. This is strictly a Word for Windows problem. Applications that do not support multiple active instances are supposed to check for one already running, and if one is found, activate that running copy and bring its window to the top (see Microsoft Systems Journal, Dec/90 for details). If you want to get fancier, it is quite easy to get the already-running app to open the specified file as well, by sending it the appropriate] message (assuming, of course, that you're writing the application!). [ \tom haapanen --- university of waterloo --- tom@mims-iris.waterloo.edu ] [ "i don't even know what street canada is on" -- al capone ]
CXT105@psuvm.psu.edu (Christopher Tate) (03/27/91)
In article <1991Mar26.132012.26071@watserv1.waterloo.edu>, tom@mims-iris.waterloo.edu (Tom Haapanen) says: >Anant Kartik Mithal <akm@obelix.cs.uoregon.edu> writes: >> ---------------------------------------- >> | Microsoft Word is already running | >> | OK | >> ---------------------------------------- >> >> On the mac, if you double click on the (greyed) icon for Word, you get >> back to the running copy. Also, on the Mac, double clicking on a >> second word doc gets you into word with the document, with Word for >> Windows, you will get the error message. > >This is strictly a Word for Windows problem. Applications that do not >support multiple active instances are supposed to check for one already >running, and if one is found, activate that running copy and bring its >window to the top (see Microsoft Systems Journal, Dec/90 for details). I find it *terribly* ironic that a major Microsoft product fails to conform to the guidelines specified *by Microsoft* for Windows applications. ------- Christopher Tate | cxt105@psuvm.bitnet | nobody, not even the rain, cxt105@psuvm.psu.edu | has such small hands. ..!psuvax1!psuvm.bitnet!cxt105 |
Christopher Tate <CXT105@psuvm.psu.edu> (03/28/91)
In article <4408@gmdzi.gmd.de>, strobl@gmdzi.gmd.de (Wolfgang Strobl) says: >Recently I read in a Macintosh magazin that now, finally, Hypercard adheres >to Apples Human Interface Guidlines. This implies that earlier versions >(which have been distributed with most Macintoshs, as far as I know) did >not do that. Was that magazine wrong? Does Apple always follow all its own >guidlines? As far as I can tell, it means that Apple has finally released a version of Hypercard since publishing the Human Interface Guidelines. The Guidelines are a somewhat recent development. The Apple Human Interface Notes discuss at some length the problems that arise because of the differences between the Hypercard paradigm and the standard Mac interface. ------- Christopher Tate | I hate writing, and I hate statistics, | but most of all I hate writing about cxt105@psuvm.psu.edu | statistics. I'd rather go to the ...!psuvax1!psuvm.bitnet!cxt105 | dentist; at least there you get to spit. cxt105@psuvm.bitnet | - Ed Sewell
strobl@gmdzi.gmd.de (Wolfgang Strobl) (03/28/91)
CXT105@psuvm.psu.edu (Christopher Tate) writes: >In article <1991Mar26.132012.26071@watserv1.waterloo.edu>, >tom@mims-iris.waterloo.edu (Tom Haapanen) says: >> >>This is strictly a Word for Windows problem. Applications that do not >>support multiple active instances are supposed to check for one already >>running, and if one is found, activate that running copy and bring its >>window to the top (see Microsoft Systems Journal, Dec/90 for details). >I find it *terribly* ironic that a major Microsoft product fails to >conform to the guidelines specified *by Microsoft* for Windows >applications. Recently I read in a Macintosh magazin that now, finally, Hypercard adheres to Apples Human Interface Guidlines. This implies that earlier versions (which have been distributed with most Macintoshs, as far as I know) did not do that. Was that magazine wrong? Does Apple always follow all its own guidlines? Wolfgang Strobl #include <std.disclaimer.hpp>
gg2@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Guy Gallo) (03/29/91)
>This is strictly a Word for Windows problem. Applications that do not >support multiple active instances are supposed to check for one already >running, and if one is found, activate that running copy and bring its >window to the top (see Microsoft Systems Journal, Dec/90 for details). >>I find it *terribly* ironic that a major Microsoft product fails to >>conform to the guidelines specified *by Microsoft* for Windows >>applications. ------- Christopher It isn't so much ironic as an example of what happens when your do a bit of magic to bring a product out for a platform it isn't quite right for. The reason WinWord won't allow multiple instances of itset lies in the fact that it was a Windows 3.0 program shoe-horned into Windows 2.x in its 1.x incarnations. This, by the way, is a subtle reflection of the fact that the applications division *doesn't* always co-ordinate with the applications division (as the FTC is investigating). It is my bet that WinWord 2.0 will behave more like Excel in this regard. (BTW - I firmly believe that most of the shortcoming of WinWord -- such as the long save time for a large template, lack of compiled macros, the need to do FilePrinterSetup when you add a font to update WINWORD.INI -- the very existence of WINWORD.INI -- are consequences of this shoe-horning.