NEATH@cgi.com (07/24/90)
I've been using IBM OS/2 EE version 1.2 for a couple of months now and have several questions concerning things that annoy the heck out of me! I previously used a Sun workstation running X and really took advantage of things like the initialization file (.xinitrc) to define the default geometry, iconic status, and location of all windows at startup time. I have found no such convenience under OS/2 -- did I miss something here? A second irritation is the way PM decides to position an icon any place it feels like it when I minimize a window. Why can't it just put it back where it found it? Finally, the file manager is really great, except that there seems to be no simple way to just view an ASCII file. Now, I know I could define my editor as the default application for each and every ASCII file extension that I might ever want to view, but that seems a little excessive. Any ideas on how to get this functionality in a less-obtrusive manner? Martin Neath <neath@itg.ti.com>
steveha@microsoft.UUCP (Steve Hastings) (07/26/90)
In article <1990Jul24.131929.17894@csc.ti.com> NEATH@cgi.com writes: >Finally, the file manager is really great, except >that there seems to be no simple way to just view an ASCII file. Now, I >know I could define my editor as the default application for each and >every ASCII file extension that I might ever want to view, but that seems >a little excessive. Any ideas on how to get this functionality in a >less-obtrusive manner? Actually, you have named the best way. It is less obtrusive than you think, at least in version 1.2 of OS/2. (I am not an expert in OS/2, and that is the only version I know -- sorry.) Using File Manager, select the file E.EXE in the \OS2 directory. Pull down File Associate, and it will say "The following data is associated with E.EXE:" Enter a "*" (assuming you use HPFS, as I do; if you use FAT, I think you want to put "*.*" instead). You have just told File Manager that E.EXE is associated with EVERY file! Here's how it works: whenever you double-click a file, File Manager checks for associations for that file. If there are no specific associations for that file, the "*" association for E.EXE will be the only one and File Manager knows to run E.EXE to view that file. If there are other associations as well as the "*" association, all associations will be presented in a list box. Just point to the one you want. Bonus: File Manager is smart enough that the general "*" association is listed last. So, for example, when I double-click a .EXE file, I get the list box to choose between running the file, or running E.EXE on the file. Running the file is the default, so I just hit enter. Nice. I, too, want to see a file viewer added to File Manager. But until that day dawns, this workaround makes me pretty happy. -- Steve "I don't speak for Microsoft" Hastings ===^=== ::::: uunet!microsoft!steveha steveha@microsoft.uucp ` \\==|