Re: [MacPerl] MacPerl and OS X (yet again :-)

[Wilfredo Sanchez <wsanchez@apple.com>]

> I don't see why.  Why couldn't the Desktop app just see that it is +x, and 
> then allow me to drop files on it, and when I do, launch a terminal, chdir 
> to where the original file is, and run the executable with that file?  It 
> doesn't seem Hard to me at all to do that much.  For extra points, a 
> terminal window would only actually come up if there was output from the 
> program; otherwise, it would just happen in the background. 

  FileViewer in Mac OS X Server does notice the +x bit.  However, we ran into
a problem with regard to HFS (not HFS+), which lacks storage for permission
bits.  We have to pick a default for HFS volumes, and if that default lacks
the x bit, then you can't run an app which lives on an HFS volume (eg. an
installer app on a CD), which is bad.  But if it is set, then Finder would
let you execute *any* file on the volume, which of course goes to sh, and
if you happen to be unfortunate enough to click on a document with a line
starting with "rm", you might end up unhappy.

  Plus it's not been clear that Terminal would be on every system, and it's
not a good UI, and it would require special knowledge from Finder for special
handling of standalone executables, which they don't really have much time
to worry about right now.

  So maybe this can get better later, but don't expect it for the initial
release.

	-Fred

Wilfredo Sánchez, wsanchez@apple.com
Open Source Engineering Lead
Apple Computer, Inc., Core Operating System Group
1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA 94086, 408.974-5174

# ===== Want to unsubscribe from this list?
# ===== Send mail with body "unsubscribe" to macperl-request@macperl.org