Article-I.D.: uw-june.66
Posted: Sun Apr  7 13:31:20 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 10-Apr-85 06:12:18 EST
Organization: U of Washington Computer Science
Lines: 10

While we're on the subject of the new finder, I'd like to put in a
request for a feature that would be quite useful.  I'd like to do a set
startup on a document, so the system would open that document when you
booted from the disk the document is on.  I find that in most cases, I
don't start an application, I open a template, modify it, and do a save
as, which makes set startup pretty useless.  Anyone else have comments
on this?  Larry?

Brian Matthews
...uw-june!dragon

Article-I.D.: ur-univa.16500016
Posted: Tue Apr  9 11:22:00 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 12-Apr-85 04:19:54 EST
References: <66@uw-june.UUCP>
Organization: University of Rochester: Computing Center
Lines: 8
Nf-ID: #R:uw-june:-6600:ur-univax:16500016:000:448
Nf-From: ur-univax!jtyd    Apr  9 11:22:00 1985

I also have found this operation to be useful.  I have a
"standard" Macpaint document which has my choice of ruler
options, header, footer, and font preselected.  When I boot
from my MacWrite disk, set startup drops me into "untitled"
I then close it, open "standard" and "save as" the name
for the document I'm creating.  From that point operations
are as normal.  It would save some aggravation if I could
set startup on the "standard" document.

Article-I.D.: cmu-cs-k.363
Posted: Tue Apr  9 18:51:56 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 12-Apr-85 05:24:14 EST
References: <66@uw-june>
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 6

Another feature that I would like would be a display of the total
size of all selected files.  This would make it much to easier to
figure out if a proposed transfer will work, without just trying
it and being told that there isn't enough space.
--
David.Anderson@cmu-cs-k.ARPA   ..!seismo!cmu-cs-k!dba   (412) 422-1255

Article-I.D.: water.447
Posted: Fri Apr 12 09:01:11 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Apr-85 02:38:48 EST
References: <66@uw-june.UUCP> <16500016@ur-univax.UUCP>
Reply-To: phcalamai@water.UUCP (Paul H. Calamai)
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 12
Summary: 

In article <16500016@ur-univax.UUCP> jtyd@ur-univax.UUCP writes:
 > I also have found this operation to be useful.  I have a
 > "standard" Macpaint document which has my choice of ruler
 > options, header, footer, and font preselected.  When I boot
 > from my MacWrite disk, set startup drops me into "untitled"
 > I then close it, open "standard" and "save as" the name
 > for the document I'm creating.  From that point operations
 > are as normal.  It would save some aggravation if I could
 > set startup on the "standard" document.

I seem to recall that one way to lessen the pain in this situation
is to simply name the "standard" document "untitled".

Article-I.D.: angband.52
Posted: Thu Apr 11 17:01:35 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 15-Apr-85 03:31:56 EST
References: <66@uw-june>
Organization: S-1 Project, LLNL
Lines: 37

 >  While we're on the subject of the new finder, I'd like to put in a
 >  request for a feature that would be quite useful.  I'd like to do a set
 >  startup on a document, so the system would open that document when you
 >  booted from the disk the document is on.  I find that in most cases, I
 >  don't start an application, I open a template, modify it, and do a save
 >  as, which makes set startup pretty useless.

 >  I also have found this operation to be useful.  I have a
 >  "standard" Macpaint document which has my choice of ruler
 >  options, header, footer, and font preselected.  When I boot
 >  from my MacWrite disk, set startup drops me into "untitled"
 >  I then close it, open "standard" and "save as" the name
 >  for the document I'm creating.  From that point operations
 >  are as normal.  It would save some aggravation if I could
 >  set startup on the "standard" document.

I wish that every application which offers a panoply of user-settable
options would arrange to remember the settings from one execution to
the next.  Allowing "set startup" on a document solves this problem for
only one application per disk, which will seem restrictive when disks
are large.

The resource mechanism could have solved this problem for every
application. When the creator of the application defines a radio
button, or a check box, or a piece of edittext, s/he could be required
to specify the initial state of that button in the resource, instead of
burying it in the code of the application. Then a user could employ the
resource editor (or a special-purpose subset thereof) to customize the
application's initial state to meet his or her preferences.

Since it is too late to use the resource mechanism in this fashion,
application developers might borrow an idea from other operating systems
where applications typically read a text-file (often called a "profile") at
startup to determine how the user wants the options set up.
-- 
                                                           --Steve Correll
sjc@s1-b.ARPA, ...!decvax!decwrl!mordor!sjc, or ...!ucbvax!dual!mordor!sjc

Article-I.D.: amdahl.1405
Posted: Mon Apr 15 16:30:28 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 18-Apr-85 02:14:59 EST
References: <66@uw-june> <52@angband.UUCP>
Organization: Amdahl Corp, Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 40

 >>  While we're on the subject of the new finder, I'd like to put in a
 >>  request for a feature that would be quite useful.  I'd like to do a set
 >>  startup on a document, so the system would open that document when you
 >>  booted from the disk the document is on.  I find that in most cases, I
 >>  don't start an application, I open a template, modify it, and do a save
 >>  as, which makes set startup pretty useless...

 >  I wish that every application which offers a panoply of user-settable
 >  options would arrange to remember the settings from one execution to
 >  the next...
 >  
 >  The resource mechanism could have solved this problem for every
 >  application. When the creator of the application defines a radio
 >  button, or a check box, or a piece of edittext, s/he could be required
 >  to specify the initial state of that button in the resource, instead of
 >  burying it in the code of the application. Then a user could employ the
 >  resource editor (or a special-purpose subset thereof) to customize the
 >  application's initial state to meet his or her preferences...
 >  
 >           ...developers might borrow an idea from other operating systems
 >  where applications typically read a text-file (often called a "profile") at
 >  startup to determine how the user wants the options set up.
 >  -- 
 >                                                             --Steve Correll

Save me from tons of little profiles on my disk, please.  Actually,
I was giving this idea some thought yesterday and your article brought
to mind a reasonable solution.  Bury the initial settings in a resource
within the application and provide the user Res.Edit. templates to modify
that resource.  An example which I haven't had a chance to try yet is
the latest posting of the Idle DA.  Larry posted both the DA and a
template for just such a purpose.  Rah Rah for Res. Edit.!
-- 
Do not walk in front of me,
   I may step on your heel.                                  Howard C. Simonson
     Do not walk behind me,          ...{dragon,hplabs,ihnp4,nsc}!amdahl!howard
        I may stop abruptly.
          Just walk beside me, and be wary of sharp turns.  --  HamuS

[ Opinion? What opinion.  I think you have the wrong guy... ]

Article-I.D.: amdcad.1112
Posted: Wed Apr 17 14:01:04 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 19-Apr-85 00:37:53 EST
References: <66@uw-june> <52@angband.UUCP>
Reply-To: jimb@amdcad.UUCP (Jim Budler)
Organization: AMDCAD, Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 33
Summary: 

In article <52@angband.UUCP> sjc@angband.UUCP (Steve Correll) writes:
 > I wish that every application which offers a panoply of user-settable
 > options would arrange to remember the settings from one execution to
 > ...
 > The resource mechanism could have solved this problem for every
 > application.
 > ...
 > Since it is too late to use the resource mechanism in this fashion,
 > application developers might borrow an idea from other operating systems
 > where applications typically read a text-file (often called a "profile") at
 > startup to determine how the user wants the options set up.

I agree with what you said, except for your conclusion.  It is not at all
too late for EITHER method to be used by application developers.

Red Ryder 4.0 (and probably later) uses the startup file to remember its
last state.

Many people have pasted the resources from a Macterminal document back into
Macterminal to create a new startup condition.  The application developer could 
easily create such an automatic action to give the result you desire.

The mechanism to paste a resource into a file, as Rsed does, can be placed
in any application.  At that point the mechanism to do this doesn't discriminate
between an external file and itself, unless the programmer wants it to do
so.

-- 
 Jim Budler
 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
 (408) 749-5806
 UUCPnet: {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra,intelca}!amdcad!jimb
 Compuserve:	72415,1200

Article-I.D.: wanginst.483
Posted: Wed Apr 17 08:55:35 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Apr-85 05:24:39 EST
References: <66@uw-june> <52@angband.UUCP> <1405@amdahl.UUCP>
Organization: Wang Institute, Tyngsboro, Ma.  01879
Lines: 32

 >>>  I'd like to do a set
 >>>  startup on a document, so the system would open that document when you
 >>>  booted from the disk the document is on.

 >>  I wish that every application which offers a panoply of user-settable
 >>  options would arrange to remember the settings from one execution to
 >>  the next...
 >>  ... a user could employ the
 >>  resource editor (or a special-purpose subset thereof) to customize the
 >>  application's initial state to meet his or her preferences...
 >>           ...developers might borrow an idea from other operating systems
 >>  where applications typically read a text-file (often called a "profile") at
 >>  startup to determine how the user wants the options set up.

 >  Save me from tons of little profiles on my disk, please.

Actually, the Mac provides an ideal place for saving a default document
with each application: the data fork of the application's file.  To modify
the default values for settings saved per-document, you would just start
up the application, edit the untitled document, and select a new method
called "save as (prototype, untitled, default...)" from the save as...
dialog box.  The edited document would be saved (pretty much invisibly)
as the data fork of the already-existing application file.

Advantages: provides a use for both forks of the file :-)
	    no special purpose utilities
	    no special purpose files

-- 
Ephraim Vishniac
  [apollo, bbncca, cadmus, decvax, harvard, linus, masscomp]!wanginst!vishniac
  vishniac%Wang-Inst@Csnet-Relay