NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #1/NN_1993_1.iso/spool/comp/sys/mac/programm/20662

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-05 | 2.8 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!olivea!apple!grobbins
From: [e-mail] (Grobbins)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: SFGetFile's directory after an Open Event
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 5 Jan 93 06:49:40 GMT
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 49

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Jon Wtte) writes:
>In <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Russell Street) writes:
>>After an application receives an 'odoc' Apple Event to open a document
>>should it arrange it so the next Standard File [Open] Dialog that is
>>brought up by the user is the same directory that the 'odoc' document
>>came from?
>
>If Apple thought that would be the right thing to do, they would
>have done it themselves. Doing so requires changing lo-mem globals;
>that's a dangerous habit you should break out of.

Changing low-memory globals is not a particularly dangerous habit for
system software, so that's not the reason the system isn't setting the
Standard File directory.  I'm not certain if the Blue Meanies made a
calculated decision in System 7 on setting up Standard File or not, but
the way the current system leaves Standard File pointing to useless
places is clearly unpleasant.

>Not to mention: if the app gets an odoc, the user most probably has
>the folder open in the Finder, and going there and double-clicking
>would be much easier than choosing "Open" in the File menu.

But what about when the user makes a change to the open document
and then chooses Save As...?  Standard File continues to point to
somewhere irrelevant (for most Apple event-aware apps, anyway.)

Back when I was doing work for DTS, I revised the Standard File Tips
Tech Note and included a recommendation that apps change the Std File
globals (SFSaveDisk and CurDirStore) when they received an 'odoc' from
the Finder.  However, I could not build a consensus on when the app
should and should not change the Std File directory (since scripting
systems may also send 'odoc's) so I never released the revised version
of the Tech Note.

No one objected to developers storing values in those low-memory globals.
Yeah, it's best to avoid doing such things, but those are well documented
globals, there is no alternative method at present, and if you isolate
access to such globals in your code, any future updates will be
relatively painless.

Except for those people who absolutely must control every aspect of
their users' environment, my current recommendation is to leave
Standard File alone.  At least this way, when the system software
folks get around to making Standard File point somewhere meaningful,
your code won't be interfering.

Grobbins                [e-mail]

Usual disclaimers apply.