newbie: OS X and answer file ?

[J. Landman Gay]

On 6/3/03 11:56 AM, Scott Rossi wrote:

> Recently, "Klaus Major"  wrote:
> 
> 
>>>- I am using "answer file of type" and/or  "answer file with filter"
>>>along with
>>>parameters like "JPEG" or "JPEGPICT" or "GIFf" or "JPEGPICTGIFf" to try
>>>to display to the user a directory listing in which only directories
>>>and files
>>>of those graphics types are displayed.
>>
>>Tom is totally right here :-)
>>
>>The syntax is correct, but some jpgs are dimmed and some are not.
>>
>>answer file "sdsdsdd" with filter "*.jpg"
>>
>>does not work at all on OS X (not that that would have surprised me ;-)
>>
>>answer file "sddsd" of type "JPEG"
>>
>>really shows some files and others not...
>>
>>Can anybody shed some light on this, please?
>>
>>
>>But looks like:
>>
>>answer file "sdsdsdd" with filter "GIFf"
>>
>>for gif-files works as exspected.
>>
>>!!! Please note the correct spelling:
>>capital G, I, F but a small f at the end!!!
> 
> 
> Perhaps the answer mechanism is looking at Mac-based file type information,
> not at filename suffixes?  I could be wrong but I don't believe "jpg" is a
> valid JPEG filetype so maybe that's why some items appear unavailable.

I'm pretty sure this is the problem, and it is probably a legacy issue 
left over from OS 9. In OS 9 all files had an assigned type code, and 
looking at the file type was the only way to determine what kind of file 
it was. In OS X files can have either a type assignment, or an 
extension, or both. If the extension is there but not a file type 
assignment then the filter command fails for those files without a type.

Probably the engine needs to be updated to look at both extensions and 
types for OS X files.

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com