Re: [MacPerl] MacPerl files creator code

[Vicki Brown <vlb@cfcl.com>]

At 09:35 -0500 98/07/31, Jim Miner wrote:
> And why should I need to go through a dialog to select an editor every
> time I open a MacPerl output textfile when I already have registered the

Not every time.  One time.

> editor I ALWAYS use with Internet Config (and in preferences for apps
> that don't use  IC)?  What happened to ease of use?

You did read the other half of my message, I presume? The part that said:

> In fact, one could put forward the case that it's a bad thing for this
> dialog to come up; a new user might  well ask "So why is it looking for
> MPW anyway? I created that file with MacPerl.".

I think we are beginning to repeat ourselves now...


So do I have the problem specification pretty well described yet?  Or is
there something more?

   Problem spec:

   At the present time (MacPerl 5.2.0r4) output data files created with
   MacPerl (i.e. using open()), are created with the Creator ID 'MPS '.
   Double-clicking these files attempts to launch MPW. This bothers
   people for different reasons:

   Users who do not have MPW installed will be presented by the Mac OS
   "App not found" dialog; this violates the "principle of least surprise".

   Users who do have MPW installed may find iI to be a heavy-weight
   solution for opening output files and may prefer to use another text
   editor (such as BBEdit or Alpha).

   Many current users of MacPerl woould like to be able to specify an
   alternative to the default ('MPS ') creator code, preferably in a
   flexible and changable manner.

   Suggested Optimal Solution:

   Use InternetConfig to assign the desired creator code based on the
   Editor Helper preference.  Internet Config is already used by (and
   included with) MacPerl, and the IC solution is both elegant and
   becoming more ubiquitous for this sort of decision making.

   Possibly use an EDITOR environment variable, say to override the
   Internet Config helper preference (more flexible yet and very Perl).

   Caveat:

   Only output data files created by open() are under consideration
   here.  MacPerl _scripts_ (creator ID 'McPL') are not addressed by
   either this problem or solution description.

 Am I missing anything?

Now, with Matthias well and truly occupied by porting 5.005,
multi-threading support, finishing his disertation, getting married, and
spending a large part of the month of August traveling... not to mentione
the Custom Install bug! - my guess is that the outcome of this particular
exercise isn't going to result in any new code from Matthias anytime soon
(note his complete silence on the subject :-)

So - Is there something we can do about this?  Or does the (albeit better
specified) discussion just go on the wish list?

 - Vicki
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