Re: Resources (was: MS-DOS FST)

[vandry@CAM.ORG (Phillip Vandry)]

tkav@allgfx.agi.oz.au (Tony Kavadias) writes:

>About the GS reading Mac icons... if the GS can't associate a Mac 
>document
>with a GS application, or since a GS cannot run a Mac application, why 
>should
>the GS even tell you that it knows what the Mac file is?  One idea of the

Because you might want to know what kind of file it is even if you don't have
a program for it. I always thought the -primary- purpose of icons was to show
icons and the -secondary- purpose was to locate an apropriate program. Maybe
the priorities are different from person to person, but they're still both
there.

You are also evaluating the usefulness of resources based on their purpose in
just one program: The Finder. If they make things easier for ONE program do
you redesign the file system?

Furthermore, I believe the old system (*/Icons/) was much better. In that
system, people who don't use the Finder (like me, because I hate it) can
just omit the icon file while installing a program.

If a program launcher requires that many of the files it deals with contain
additional information relevant to that program launcher in order to
function acceptably, there must be something wrong with that program
launcher. All the other program launchers work just beautifully without
icons, application ascociations, etc... why should the Finder require
special "extras". This goes for Finder.Data/Finder.Root files too: I know
plenty of program launchers that do -not- depend on such files for
optimal performance.

>Finder is to associate documents to applications.  Since the GS can't
>associate any Mac documents to GS applications (yet), then the GS shows
>"plain paper" document icons to reflect that fact.

Sure. Can't teach import MacWrite or something like that?

BTW, the "ascociation" procedure is one to one. A files can only be ascociated
to a single application. This breaks down if you want to load the file into
a different program than the one with which it is ascociated. You have to "do
it the long way", defeating the purpose of the ascotiation system in the first
place.

>--- Tony Kavadias
 ______________________________________________________________________
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| Phillip Vandry | Vandry@Cam.Org | Suicide (n.): What to do if Macs   |
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