Re: [MacPerl] MacPerl files creator code

[Vicki Brown <vlb@cfcl.com>]

At 16:55 -0400 98/07/30, Chris Nandor wrote:
>  You are arguing only that it does not matter to you; fine, that
> is well and good.

Well and good perhaps, yet a false assumption.  I'm not arguing this at
all; truth be told, I'm not even arguing :-)

I never said this doesn't matter to me. I did say I didn't understand the
need for it. But I asked you'all to explain why you want this behaviour.

The discussion started with a message without a lot of background
explanation:

  At 08:55 -0600 98/07/29, w e b s l a v e wrote:
  > Here's another idea for changing the creator code of files
  > created with MacPerl...
  >
  > Make it a preference ;)

Since the best (imho the only :-) way to solve a problem is to start with a
complete and clear specification of the problem, I am trying to get a
handle on that specification.

I think we're succeeding. Notice how we've moved from (what could be
interpreted as) "any old file created with MacPerl, scripts and output
files, pod files, anything" to "output data files as created with open()".
That was a valuable exercise, I'd say ;-)

If a large enough population thinks this is a useful feature, and if that
population can convince someone to implement the change, that's terrific.
Because it's a feature request (not a bug fix), said feature has to be
considered for its extent (scripts as well as output data?  No?  Any other
restrictions?) and it's usage pattern (how often might someone want to
change this?  How can we make it easy enough to change? Exactly _what_ are
the requirements of the users who want this feature?)

So whether or not this matters to me personally (i.e. whether I have ever
felt the need for such a feature) isn't really the issue, now is it? I'd
like to understand why it does matter to some people. And I'm the one who
will be documenting it in the next book :-)

But my reasons for asking aren't entirely for personal edification. We need
to clarify exactly what the problem is that we are trying to solve and we
need to consider what the potential solutions would be, in order to:
  a) make sure any solution meets the needs of the most users
  b) make sure any solution does not inversely impact anyone currently
     using MacPerl
  c) convince the person who's going to implement (or not) the feature

> Actually, I think the best place might be in an Environment variable.
...
>The EDITOR setting would be used to get the creator type for new files.

That works :-)
It's more "perl"y.

> Have an environment variable that is called EDITOR that is initially
> set with the IC application mapping.

Which particular IC mapping(s) did you have in mind?

- V.
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