Opening cross-platform images

John M McIntosh johnmci at smalltalkconsulting.com
Fri Dec 28 07:15:19 UTC 2001


>  > To me, this sounds like Mac file type / creator code issues,  The Mac
>>  prior to OS X stores meta-data about the types of files.  This allows
>>  files to maintain their type without requiring a specific file extension
>>  (as Windows does.)
>
>Yes, we know this. :-)  The frustrating thing is that there isn't a
>simpler way in OS X (or OS 9 or any other Mac OS) to fix the file type
>problem for files downloaded from other operating systems, etc.
>
>OS X actually comes close to handling this reasonably... if you
>double-click on the raw downloaded .image icon, it will prompt you with
>a dialog to select an application to run.  So, we should be able to
>select the appropriate VM from this dialog, and all will be well, right?
>  Wrong, it only seems to let you select an application with the
>appropriate matching file type (which the VM does not match), and the
>dialog doesn't offer any option to view "all files" or similar.  AARGH!
>(Memo to myself: Must punish the person responsible for this "feature".)
>
>- Doug Way
>   dway at riskmetrics.com

1) Now be nice since that code is my fault. I spent a few minutes 
today fixing this. With the carbon mach-o version of 3.2.1Beta5 it 
links .image files with the Squeak VM, so installing the new VM gives 
you new icons and helps the finder find the owners for .image files.

2) The open file dialog box now will consider that a file is a valid 
file if it is a STim file type, or if the file name suffix matches 
the list of valid suffixes in an existing isThisAnImageFile check 
function.

So now you can do 'touch foobar.image' and it will appear as a squeak 
image, you won't get far trying to open that file, but this enables 
you to open images that have lost all traces of meta data.

Mmm I could add the feature to view 'all files' if one wants, but I'd 
think restricting the option to files of a know suffix might be 
safer, no?
-- 
--
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John M. McIntosh <johnmci at smalltalkconsulting.com> 1-800-477-2659
Corporate Smalltalk Consulting Ltd.  http://www.smalltalkconsulting.com
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