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Mac Magazin/MacEasy 11
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Mac Magazin and MacEasy Magazine CD - Issue 11.iso
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Sharewarebibliothek
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Entwickler
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Drop UNIX 1.1
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DropUNIX Documentation
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1995-05-25
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4KB
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87 lines
DropUNIX 1.1
============
By: Ryan Davis <davis@wln.com>
CHANGES:
--------
I waited for CW 6 before releasing this version. This release is a bug fix
release. Using the new SIOUX library takes care of any errors that may have
occured with SIOUX (seems stable, and QC no longer reports any errors). I
completely rewrote how data was passed around and removed all globals that
I was using before. This was for two reasons: I hate globals, and there
seemed to be a bug in malloc (I'm not sure if it was my bug, or a bug
in MW's code) so all allocation is done with NewPtr & NewHandle. Last, but
not least, changes have been made to accomodate THINK C's console. It behaves
better, and seems to be a little more understandable. Again, documentation
sucks, so does the interface... Both will come in version 2.0...
Why did I write DropUNIX?
-------------------------
Basically I was tired of writing support for some sort of user interface
for unix ports. What it really comes down to is I dislike both Symantec's and
MetroWerk's cconsole call. I thought, "Mac users don't DO pathnames... It
is even discouraged by Apple...". So I wrote this little library allowing
people to convert their ugly console app with no real interface to at LEAST
be drag & drop.
How does it work?
-----------------
To be honest... I wrote very little of this. It is a small conversion of
Leonard Rosenthal's DropShell 2.0. What _I_ did was take his dropShell and
have it process files in it's usual manner, except, rather than processing
files right there, it creates a list of pathnames of the files dropped on
the app. THEN when the processing is done, it passes the number of files+1
(argc) and the list of "command line arguments" (argv) to Main (notice the
case).
How do I use it?
----------------
Well, this is the nice part. It comes precompiled into a library. So all
you have to do is start a new application project (or duplicate the examples
project) add all your unix files, the DropUNIX library, and the DropUNIX
resources file. Don't forget to make the creator '∂UNX' (delta = option-d).
Then, include "Main.h" in the same file that has your original main(...). It
has a #define to convert your main(...) to Main(...), so linkage is
automatic once you compile...
Why should I use it?
--------------------
Simplicity for the first part. You don't have to do much of anything to get
it up. Second, to maintain Apple's Human Interface Guidelines. I hate, You
hate, we all hate icky GUI's! Last, but not least Productivity. By using
DropUNIX you have increased your productivity by giving the port a new
interface for free, and you have increased your users productivity by giving
them an interface they can use intuitively...
Why shouldn't I use it?
-----------------------
Because a lot of unix apps change options through flags, if you require these
flags to be settable, you are out of luck for now... Well, this isn't entirely
true... If one REALLY needs a flag, say '-f' they can make a folder with the
name '-f' and include that in the drop, then the flag would get there... It
just seems wierd to have to do that....
Also, if ordering is important, then one would have to physically rename
their files to be: 1.aFile, 2.anotherFile... etc, because the finder sends
the files in alphabetical order...
Planned Changes:
----------------
In the next major release, I will write a simple interface that comes up (if
option is held down?) and allows one to modify the order, add flags easily, etc.
How do I modify and recompile DropUNIX?
---------------------------------------
Because DropUNIX was based entirely on DropShell 2.0, I did not distribute ANYTHING but the
modified files. If you would like to make modifications to this library and recompile it,
go ahead. I've included all the other DropShell files to avoid confusion...
OK, what does it cost me?
-------------------------
All I want is email. Whether you use it or not, I'd appreciate a simple email from anyone
who downloads it. This is more to see how many people are even interested in the stuff that
I am planning to put out than it is a real need for email... I mean, come on, I _do_ have a
life!
Ryan Davis
davis@wln.com