copy file on Mac

[Richard Gaskin]

Chipp Walters wrote:

> Richard Gaskin mentioned you can *force* a file launch *sometimes* ;-) 
> by using the get info for a filetype, choosing which application and 
> then pressing the "Change All.." button.
> 
> I tried this on a single file, and it did seem to work. I'm hoping Apple 
> will come to it's senses soon and fix this eratic and un-standard behavior.

But my tip only reliably addresses files with no type, such as 
downloaded files.  When we spoke I had forgotten that RR sets the file 
type by default to "TEXT", so doing that Get Info trick on an .xls file 
set to "TEXT" may produce unexpected results (does that affect files of 
the same type or files with the same extension?  Or did the Mac team and 
the NeXT team ever settle their little fight over that yet?)

As Sarah pointed out, it's more reliable to first set the file type to 
empty before writing a file whose extension is known but whose Finder 
type may not be. If you know the file type of course you can just set 
that before writing.


> <rant>
> Our development of altBrowser and other externals on the Mac takes more 
> than 10X the resources (our time) for the PC.
...
> Not to mention, they release a whole new version of the OS every year or 
> so. Geez.
> </rant>

Hang on to your seat -- about the time developers begin to recover from 
the devastating losses from the one-two-three punch in the face of 
68k->PPC, Classic->OS X, and most recently PPC->Intel, Apple may 
possibly replace the file system:

    Apple is reportedly interested in porting Sun's Solaris
    "ZFS" filesystem to Mac OS X, and is seeking community
    assistance -- the ZFS team at Sun is reportedly pleased
    and fully supports the effort being spearheaded by Chris
    Emura, Apple's Filesystem Development Manager.
    <http://www.macosrumors.com/>

Don't worry.  They wouldn't dream of putting all the hurdles out at one 
time.  It creates much more artificial demand for otherwise-unnecessary 
upgrades to space these transitions out.  Where would third parties be 
in the Apple world if not for the last three artificial-demand cycles?

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Managing Editor, revJournal
  _______________________________________________________
  Rev tips, tutorials and more: http://www.revJournal.com