Re: Bug? or system...

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Tilghman Lesher writes ...
> 
> Rubywand (rubywand@swbell.net) wrote:
> : Laine Houghton wrote:
> : > ....
> : > Boot the GS and the finder presents you with the desktop
> : >
> : > Click on /hd1 icon to open a window.
> : > EDIT:Select all
> : > FILE:Print
> : >
> : > What happens with your system?
> : >
> : > /hd2 , being smaller, has fewer files and makes for an ammusing
> : > demonstration.
> : >
> : > /hd1 with many files makes for a wild ride.
> : >
> 
> :      It's a bug.
> 
> It's a feature.  It's well-documented as the intended behavior.
>

     Well, okay, it's a "feature".

     Regarding documentation, neither the Apple IIgs System 6 User's
Reference nor the System 6.0.1 Addendum appear to specifically address
what happens when an entire hard disk volume is selected for "Print". To
come up with a reasonable guess at what to expect, the user must connect
the short "Print" blurb on Page 48 with the "Select All" sentence on
Page 50, the "Working with Icons" discussion on page 68, and the
"Starting up an application" discussion on Page 136-137 and, possibly,
get around an error on Page 136.

     Surely, this is "documentation"; but, it lacks organization
vis-a-vis questions about "Print". Even should the user figure out that
Print will try to associate and print all of the documents it finds,
he/she might reasonably expect a pop-up window asking whether to skip
unassociated documents, an option to select a particular filetype for
printing, etc..

     All Apple needed to do was add an alert Note under "Print" to
outline Print's limitations when whole folders or disks are selected.
Instead the blurb mainly just settles for making the same error about
function as on Page 136-- i.e. that the command launches the application
which produced the document. Calling Print's behavior as presented by
Apple "well-documented" seems overly generous.


Rubywand