Double-clicking a document in Windows

[Chipp Walters]

Hi Graham,

You can't easily open a doc in an already opened application by
double-clicking on the document, because it will launch another instance of
the application. What you need it 'intra-application communication' for
instance: when the app launches, it checks a temp txt file to see if an
instance of itself is already opened, if it is, then it sends a message to
the other app (via the same text file and/or some sort of polling mechanism)
to open the newly requested file.

There's actually a RunRev user group setup to try and build an OpenSource
implementation of the 'intra-application' protocol and libray...but there's
not much done on it yet.

So, the short answer is it's currently very difficult to do this in Windows.

Here's a tip on "Creating a custom icon for Windows"

http://www.altuit.com/webs/altuit2/RunRev/Tutorials.htm

-Chipp


> -----Original Message-----
> From: use-revolution-admin at lists.runrev.com
> [mailto:use-revolution-admin at lists.runrev.com]On Behalf Of Graham Samuel
> Sent: Sunday, February 23, 2003 10:11 AM
> To: Revolution user discussion
> Subject: Double-clicking a document in Windows
>
>
> I've read Ken Ray's excellent article on 'Setting Document
> Associations in Windows', and I think I understand it as far as it
> goes. Trouble is, the depth of my ignorance is so profound, I don't
> know where to look for more information - I am totally ignorant of
> command-lines (well, at least since the early 70s), shells,
> registries, you name it... anyway, rant over, my current question is
> this:
>
> if my user double-clicks on a document (a stack or maybe a text file)
> which is associated with my Revo-developed app, I can use Ken's
> technique to get the app to launch and hand my app script the path of
> the doc to open; however, what if the app is already open? Can I get
> an environment variable to tell me this, or must I keep a system of
> flags within my app to distinguish between the first time the user
> double-clicks (when I will have to go through a long initialisation
> sequence for the app) and all the subsequent times (when I will just
> have to act as if my user had chosen File/Open from a menu)? I recall
> I have had to do this 'manually' on Macs (using Apple Events with
> SuperCard). In more general terms, where can I find out more about
> environment variables and also about creating and attaching icons
> (icon families?) to the application and its associated documents?
> Maybe I have just missed some massive part of the Revo documentation,
> but I don't think so.
>
> While I'm at it, what is the Windows equivalent of the Apple Event
> "aevtquit", where the OS tries to force the app to quit, and how do I
> handle it?
>
> Deeply confused
>
> Graham
> --
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>           Graham Samuel / The Living Fossil Co. / UK & France
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