minich@unx2.ucc.okstate.edu (Robert Minich) (03/26/91)
by klingspo@mozart.cs.colostate.edu (Steve Klingsporn): Here's another quesiton [sic] (really quick): I noticed the resources | in the System file that describe the new folders (Apple Menu Items, | etc.). How does one (can one?) defina [sic] a new "special" folder | that is used by an INIT or something and has a special icon (w/o | pasting an icon in "Get Info")...? Is this possible? I'm writing a | small background program that will take items from a folder and mail | them via CommToolbox -> unix machine dialup & retrieve mail to this | folder. I'd like it to be called "Mail Box," and reside on the | desktop (or an alias on the desktop w/ the real thing in the | System Folder). I don't know about the solution to your problem but it leads me to ponder a more general idea: is it possible (with Sys 7) or is it rumored to someday become possible (Sys 8?) to have first class objects in the Finder instead of just files and folders? What I'm getting at is the ability to have other functional objects on the desktop. A drag and drop paradigm would be one use. Drop a file in the Archive icon and have it, say, compress the file and add it to a database-like retrieval system. (A super scrapbook, I guess.) Other uses for desktop objects would include programs that don't fit together very well with the Macintosh style. For instance, instead of having apps require a separate folder for a bunch of files needed to run, that app could become a folder-like object. Double clicking on the app would work as it does now but there would be another menu item "Examine Contents" which would open the app's own directory hierarchy. This way, a compiler could be a single object at the surface with the benefits that provides (a nice icon, copy with click-drag, only one icon to position, never is disconnected from its "internals") while retaining the benefits of multiple files including keeping distinct internal "parts" separate and allowing a browseable hierarchy which conveys meaning in and of itself to a user. A good example of such an object would be a mail box. It would work silently in the background and spool incoming mail within its own internal folder structure. You can easily move your mailbox without any ill effects. Double click the box and you get the mail box agent and a nice interface. _Examine_ the mail box and you have a nice set of text files that any program can look at. I'm not sure about how the StandardFile dialog would work, but selecting applications from there is usually an awkward process anyhow. No doubt this ability would require some OOP techniques to be efficient and easy to implement and there are numerous opportunities to run afoul or end up with a bad interface. Are there currently hooks in the Finder that would allow something approximating the above? Should I get even more general and say that files should be their own objects and capable of doing interesting things on their own? For example, how about a mailbox file that, when something tries to read it, queries a central server for new mail, etc. Examine the mailbox object and do a drag'n'drop of the file "index" onto you word processor and a freshly updated index comes up in the window. This may be pushing things a little far. A better example would be a compressed file object that expanded itself upon an attempt to open it and went back to its compressed state upon closing. There would be a generic compressed file class with instances having different compression methods, ie GIF for a picture and something else for your .newsrc file.) No doubt, HyperScript would allow end users to program their environment in the way that best suits themselves. I'm starting to have fun premonitions... Oh heck, while we're at it, let's try getting rid of most applications and get back to the idea of a composite document. I really do like the idea of "just doing the work" rather than fumbling for the right tool. Click on the table in your document and you get the table palette. Click on the PostScript figure you included and you get the Illustrator tools. Click on the code resource in ResEd 3.0.0.7 (only a minor upgrade that fixes the "smoke out the back of pre IInix4us class machines" problem - a significant upgrade would be 4.x.y.z... :-)) and I get a neato debugger style window with symbolic names in the asm, the original source code, settable breakpoints, and a class browser. Looks much like the development package. THINK C actually working with another tool. Imagine that. I leave it to everyone to come up with more interesting (intentioanl double idiom) uses for first class Finder objects. I have to get back to my hex dumps and 370 assembler classwork. }:-( -- |_ /| | Robert Minich | |\'o.O' | Oklahoma State University| "I'm not discouraging others from using |=(___)= | minich@d.cs.okstate.edu | their power of the pen, but mine will | U | - "Ackphtth" | continue to do the crossword." M. Ho