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- åLimitations
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- Some applications refuse to submit to the trickery of Menu Events. The
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- prime example is any version of Finder which predates the Power
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- Macintosh (version 7.1.2). It is not truly an Apple event server, and it
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- only respects events of known types. Any other high-level event is not
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- replied to, and the send will time out. ResEdit 2.1.1 is similar. Some
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- Microsoft applications handle Apple events in a non-standard fashion,
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- binding their own event handlers over all Apple event classes, and
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- therefore should not be targeted.
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- The only way to know for sure is to try the ones you are interested in
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- controlling. Certainly, anything you write yourself is a candidate, as long
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- as you follow the practices suggested in Apple documentation, namely: Be
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- high-level-event-aware. Always be ready to accept and dispatch an
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- Apple event. Assume that any high-level event you don’t recognize is an
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- Apple event, and dispatch it as such. If an unknown event reaches your
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- wildcard event handler, return errAEEventNotHandled, so that system
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- event handlers can get a crack at it. Don’t deny other programs on the
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- same machine the right to request user interaction, which is the default.
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- Another limitation you should know about is that Menu Events can’t
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- operate dialogs and alerts which the target application may post in
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- response to the menu action. If the menu item text ends in an ellipsis
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- ('…') character, you can bet that the application will post a dialog or alert
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- box. It is then up to the local user to operate the controls.
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- A known conflict exists between Menu Events and Help on Wheels. If you
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- send a Menu event to an application which does a casual help display
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- before performing the menu action, and if the help server is running,
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- problems may occur with the application. The problem is that the Menu
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- event’s user interaction ends when the receiving application sends an
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- Apple event to the help server, causing it to return to the background. If
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- the menu action causes a call to the Standard File Manager or any other
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- code which should not be called when in the background, the application
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- may hang.
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- åProgrammer Notes
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- Write to the author at the above address if you want to know more about
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- the Menu Events extension or how it was programmed.
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- 4
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- 4
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- åAcknowledgements
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- Thanks to C.K. Haun and the other folks at Apple Developer Technical
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- Support who put together those clever little code snippets which give
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- folks like me such odd ideas.
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- Special thanks to the many fine people who beta-tested this software,
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- including Ken Linger, Chris Reynolds, Michele Marques, Chris Kaltwasser,
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- James Edward Davis, and Leonard Rosenthol.
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- ò
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- ò
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- åRevision History
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- 1.1 (March 28, 1994)
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- • Public AWOL Utilities 1.1 release.
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- • Documented that Menu Events works with Finder 7.1.2.
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- 1.0.7 (March 13, 1994)
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- • Menu Events Help presents a useful message if the user tries to open or
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- print it when the help server is absent.
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- 1.0.6 (February 27, 1994)
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- • Added protection against loading duplicate copies of the extension.
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- 1.0.5 (February 6, 1994)
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- • Improved compatibility with At Ease and other applications which flush
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- mouse-down events when they become active.
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- 1.0.4 (January 30, 1994)
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- • If the Shift key is pressed on startup, the extension will not be loaded.
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- If the Help or Command-? key is pressed, the extension will delay up to
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- one second to let the user release the key(s).
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- 1.0.3 (January 19, 1994)
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- • Added “Menu Events 'aete'” resource file.
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- 1.0.2 (January 11, 1994)
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- • Fixed bug which sent the target application into a notification wait state
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- if it received a Menu event from a remote sender.
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- 1.0.1 (December 31, 1993)
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- • Initial AWOL Utilities 1.0.1 release.
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