Re: Finder Extensions

[uerics@mcl.ucsb.edu (Eric D. Shepherd)]

Oh, yes.  Finder Extensions cannot actually be used from within other
programs, because they need to be able to communicate with the Finder.
For example, when the Finder first starts up, it sends out a message to
anybody who's listening (such as Finder Extensions).  This message is
called "finderSaysHello", and means exactly that -- the Finder is telling
any program, INIT, or Finder Extensions that the Finder is now running.

When Finder Extensions get this message, they set themselves up.  As an
example, they might ask the Finder to add a menu item to the Extras menu
("tellFinderAddToExtras").

This kind of conversation is continually running the entire time you're in
the Finder.  When you're not doing anything, the Finder tells the Finder
Extensions that it's idle ("finderSaysIdle").  This sort of thing
continues until you quit the Finder (by, for example, launching a
program).  At that time, the Finder sends a message called
"finderSaysGoodbye", and the Finder Extensions remove themselves from the
Extras menu ("tellFinderRemoveFromExtras").

The obvious problem is that unless some program is around that understands
this language that the Finder and Finder Extensions use to communicate
(Finderspeak? :), Finder Extensions won't work.

There are a couple of desk accessories that simulate some of these
messages so that you can use some Finder Extensions from other
applications, but they won't work with everything.

I hope that explains it better than my other post. :)

- Eric S.

--
Eric D. Shepherd                   | Apple II Alliance Charter Member
InterNet: uerics@mcl.mcl.ucsb.edu  |           ACM Member
FidoNet:  1:206/2713 Eric Shepherd | Programming Law #1: "When in
AOL:      Sheppy                   | doubt, rewrite from scratch."