Second copy of app launching

[Ray Horsley]

Thanks Shari.  I wrote this solution a while back for this particular 
app which is for elementary school teachers.  The problem I'm 
encountering is it seems no matter how simply and straight forward I 
word the dialog which comes up when a second copy is launched, the 
teacher's, especially beginners, just don't get it.  Unfortunately, 
with this method I've got to count on them to decide whether they 
should continue or not, since they could have forced the first app to 
quit (control-alt-delete) in which case it would be legitimate to 
continue launching what appears to be a second copy of the app.

I'm going to try the two suggestions I've gotten from Ken Ray, one of 
which will hopefully remove the end user from the decision making 
process.   I'll let you know how it works out, but thanks for your 
alternate idea!

Ray Horsley
Developer, LinkIt! Software


On Jan 25, 2006, at 7:52 AM, Shari wrote:

> Another way is to have your application either create a text file on 
> launch, or write something to it.
>
> Then, anytime the app launches it looks for that text file, and if the 
> file exists or the wording inside of it say something specific, the 
> app is running.
>
> On quit, either delete the file or write something else to it.  The 
> key here is to catch any type of quit the user uses.  If the program 
> doesn't go thru your quit routine, the file will not be changed on 
> quit, and will give a false positive on the next launch.
>
> Mine has a text file that on launch, it opens the file for read, reads 
> from it etc.  If the word Windows is in the text, my app is already 
> open.  If it is opening for the first time, it writes something with 
> the word Windows to the file, signifying that the game has been 
> launched and is running.  On quit, it writes something else to the 
> file.
>
> Shari
>
> -- 
> Mac and Windows shareware games
> http://www.gypsyware.com
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