How does "ask file with type" work?

[Trevor DeVore]

I just finished dealing with a support issue on Windows related to  
this so I want to add some additional notes.

On Apr 6, 2007, at 7:49 AM, Richard Gaskin wrote:

> If you supply a default name, the name portion preceding the file  
> name extension is selected, preserving the file type extension.   
> That works well.

This works on OS X but not Windows. On Windows the entire file name  
(including extension) is selected. If the user just starts typing  
away then the extension is lost. This seems to be the standard  
behavior with other Windows applications but see below.

> So this comes down to Dave's suggestion that the ask file command  
> somehow force a file type extension when the user has deleted it  
> from the prompt, and also provide its own notification of any  
> conflicts with existing files.
>
> OS X allows the developer to supply a file extension, and Rev  
> provides a means for doing that.  But apparently the OS doesn't  
> prevent the user from going out of their way to delete file type  
> extensions in its dialog, and the "ask file" command (when used  
> outside of the Message Box) faithfully returns exactly what the  
> user entered.

I just tested Notepad and SnagIt on Windows.  The behavior in ask  
file dialogs is to automatically append the extension of the  
currently selected "Save as type:". In Notepad I tried to save a file  
as "test" in a folder that had a "test.txt" file already. I clicked  
the "Save" button and was immediately presented with a dialog asking  
if I wanted to replace "test.txt" (ask dialog did not disappear).

So on Windows I think the file extension of the currently selected  
"Save as type:" should be automatically appended to the file name. On  
Mac I think the current behavior is correct since file extensions  
aren't required.

The fact that lots of us are writing cross-platform software means  
some of us might want to enforce file extensions so the files can  
travel between different operating systems easily enough. Maybe an  
option to force the extension on OS X would be nice as well. We can  
do it manually now but it would be nice to not have to add the extra  
code to check each time.

-- 
Trevor DeVore
Blue Mango Learning Systems
www.bluemangolearning.com    -    www.screensteps.com
trevor at bluemangolearning.com