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Torquemada the Inquisitor
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Text File
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1992-05-04
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8KB
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198 lines
#include "YRU!7?.h"
main ()
{
if ( (System.CPU >= (long)68020) && \
(System.RAM >= (long)(4 * (1024 * 1024)) && \
(System.OS < 7) )
HaveHeadExamined (*head, *examiner);
}
The above is a thought program, which is analagous to a thought
experiment. That is to say, it is a deep and imponderable swatch of
code that is utterly useless. It won't compile, link or execute, but
it could, possibly, win the Nobel Prize for Obtuseness. Stranger
things have happened...
The question that it asks is: if you have the computing resources,
why aren't you running System 7? We're just shy of the anniversary
date of the software's release, so the question hardly seems idle. So
far, the major applications haven't abandoned System 6, but the
necessary consequence of that is that they're all running fat and
braindead. System 7 has a lot of great benefits for users, but its
best benefits are what can be done with it in software. If
application developers know that they can specify it as a baseline
requirement, they can write much cooler, smaller, faster apps.
Afficianados of batch operations and custom SF routines in particular
should take careful note. There is no more compatibility issue;
rather more the opposite: the coolest apps, and the coolest functions
of applications less cool, are incompatible with System 6. So, if you
are still running 6, might I ask that you examine yourself to see if
your reasoning still holds water?
And: I confess that my hectoring is not idle. The satisfaction I take
from this release of Torquemada is diluted by all the crap I had to
go through to stay compatible with 6 while giving those of us who are
totally sevenacious a little more of what we're fighting for. It's
not something I'll go through again. The next two apps I write will
be 7-only, as will be XP8 2.0 and Torquemada 2.0, when I come to
them. Denver and Seattle and Mountain View can do what they want;
North Andover is going all-7 this week (grin).
Here's why this is significant:
Torquemada 1.0.9 will allow you to use up to 32 Search and Replace
set files on the same one source file.
But: if you are sevenescent, you can drag and drop up to 32 set files
and up to 128 text files and have the whole job done in one monster
batch.
What this means is that our friends north of the border can write a
monstrous number of literals for everything we spell wrong and
translate American to Canadian in one fell swoop. It also means that
our friend south of the equator can satisfy his perverse need to do
everything in one pass with some few hundreds of search strings to
spare. And it means that a certain gadfly alien from Seattle can
pursue ever more spectacular and mind-bending crashes (grin).
What it means, at bottom, is that Torquemada is now a lot more
powerful and a lot faster to use, without changing at all in outward
appearance.
And: if you are running System 7, the power and speed are just that
much greater. Think about it...
End of sermon. Here's what's new:
First, there was a bug in 1.0.8. I had said that a case conversion
command on the search side would be ignored. In fact, I was filtering
for these, but I was doing it wrong. 'Too trivial to need testing' is
what needs testing. That's one of those lessons you have to learn
over and over again... Fixed this time.
Next, Save Set now 'remembers' the name of the set last loaded. So,
if you load a set, make a change, then go to save it, you'll be
prompted with the original name, rather than 'Torquemada’s Tests of
Faith…'.
Then: batch operations.
IF YOU ARE RUNNING SYSTEM 6:
You can:
* Double-click (or Finder/File/Open) on a set. That set will be
loaded (instead of Torquemada Prefs).
* Double click (or Finder/File/Open) on any number of sets in the
same folder, up to 32. If you take more than 32 (!), only the first
32 selected will be honored. The sets will be sorted in strict
lexical order, and each will be run on each text file selected until
you: Quit, Clear All, Load Set, or Save Set. After a Clear All, Load
Set or Save Set, only the set shown in the Pyre will be run.
What this means is: if you have a set named '1' and another named
'2', the strings in 1 will be run against your text file, then the
strings in 2. The end result will be one new file that has been
through 40 (or up to 640) search and replace operations.
IF YOU ARE RUNNING SYSTEM 7:
You can:
* Do all of the above, plus:
* Drag and Drop a set on Torquemada or an alias. That set will be
loaded (instead of Torquemada Prefs).
* Drag and Drop any number of sets in the same folder, up to 32, on
Torquemada or an alias. If you take more than 32 (!), only the first
32 selected will be honored. The sets will be sorted in strict
lexical order, and each will be run on each text file selected until
you: Quit, Clear All, Load Set, or Save Set. After a Clear All, Load
Set or Save Set, only the set shown in the Pyre will be run.
* Drag and Drop any number of files in the same folder, up to 128, on
Torquemada or an alias. If you take more than 128 (!!), only the
first 128 will be honored. The files will be processed automatically,
as a batch, in the order selected (i.e., the order clicked-upon in
the finder, if that matters).
* Drag and Drop up to 32 sets and up to 128 files at the same time,
and have all of the above done all at once (no kidding).
What this means is: if you have a large job, or if you have a largely
repetitive job, your labor ends at the end of engineering.
What this means is: YRU!7? (Why are you not 7?)
THE CATCH(es):
1. System 6 users cannot operate on batches of text files, with one
execption: they can, if all of the files already have the creator
type XP84 (the Torquemada signature). That means: files that have
already been Torqued or files that have had their creator type
changed in DiskTop or DeskZap.
2. Both batch sets and batch-processed files only work at launch
time. In a 7-only app, they could happen at any time. By supporting
6, I'm effectively ghettoizing the 7 users, which is why I won't be
supporting 6 much longer. If there's a TQM 1.1.0, I'll probably
segregate the 6 and 7 users. There _is_ a way to make this work with
6 (you can see part of it in the 'mstr' resource in Quark), but it's
a kludge that seems less than pointful at this late date.
NOTES and COMMENTS
1. Strict lexical order is serious business. The 'natural' order is
the order selected (clicked upon) in the Finder. That's hard to
remember, and it's hard to predict the effect of a marquee (order
highlighted). So: I'm sorting to lexical order: A comes before Z,
which comes before a, which comes before z. The files 'Today',
'TODAY', and 'today' would sort to:
TODAY
Today
today
O comes before o, and T comes before t. If you need to know how sets
will sort, just look at an ASCII chart. Better yet, name your sets
with numbers; use two digits (02, not 2), since 11 comes before 2.
2. Why are we sorting sets? A batch of sets is a 'virtual' set. The
second search in a single set can operate on the results of the first
search. In the same way, the first search in the second set of a
batch can operate on something left behind by the first set. To use
batches of sets reliably, you have to know the exact order in which
the searches will be made. Sorting the sets gives you greater
control.
3. Why are the file limits set so high? Because I hate to think that
anything I do is _almost_ good enough. Honestly, if ever you find
youself running 640 searches, examine your methods to see if they can
be made more general. If ever you find yourself running on a batch of
128 files, query your source to see if they can tighten up on their
end a bit. But: if you really _do_ need awesome quantities of strings
or files, you've got 'em.
4. Batch-processed files will have the default extension (.TQM)
applied to them automatically. If a source file has already been
Torqued, and if its name is _exactly_ 31 characters in length, the
new name would be identical to the old. In that one case, we are
using a slightly different extension (.TQµ), so as to avoid toasting
the source file.
5. Logic of Beeps: if you run a batch of files, Torquemada will beep
at you, a cheery little, "Hey, Dufus! Wake up!" TQM also beeps at the
end of any _normal_ run that takes longer than 5 seconds.
6. Just in case you were wondering... there are no new wildcards
(grin).
Greg Swann
5/4/92