9.3

[Protools5LEGuy]

No, but if that's what you want, I can do that in a few lines of code and pack it as a contextual menu extension.

The largest part of my work is the framework. If this is finished, then programs like "Change label" can be written in a few hundred lines of code.

Concerning the new Finder, I would lie if I say that it's an existing program, but it would also be incorrect to say that I have to start from zero. Most of the work that is necessary is done and works without error. What you see on screen is a drawing and this is a few hundred lines of code. Most work is behind the screen, what you don't see.

So to answer your question: I can create a new folder and name it "Folder name with more than 31 characters" in a few instructions using my framework, but this solution is not called "Finder".

I see that of all my work people are most interested in a new Finder. Perhaps I should finish this first?

The name for a new Finder that I was thinking of was "Friend".

I propose to keep using Finder and "Friend" side by side.

Just keeping in mind 2020 9.3 things-stuff will be done by "Friend"

I guess is the simplest approach

[IIO]

I'll try this one first.

just drawing another window on top of it sounds like a solution with built-in time bomb.

i´ve never really known what these SIZE settings in finder do, and didnt had the balls to try. but some of them sound promising, isnt it.

[OS923]

just drawing another window on top of it sounds like a solution with built-in time bomb.

It sounds like just another regular program. It could be better than Finder, because Finder isn't a regular program.

[IIO]

what about moving the complete desktop outside the visible range? (-25,000 -25,000)

[OS923]

That would be the same as making the desktop window invisible.

[IIO]

if anyone knows that then it is you, so allow me to ask a question: how would i open an alias?

they are said to contain the path info in the resource fork of the alias file.

but of course i cant open an alias file, as it will always open the original. and if you delete the original, it wont open at all.

if you try to change the filetype, it changes the filetype of the original.

...

[cc333]

Hi,

Just checking in from a long hiatus...

This is a neat idea!

However, it would seem to me that the ideal solution for actually making it work would be to somehow reverse engineer and create a working clone of the old Finder, with documented code (is it possible to disassemble and analyze the existing binary?) and then extend it with features from your new Finder.

This would be very nontrivial, I would think.

If only Apple had open sourced it.... *sigh*

c

[OS923]

Covering the desktop with a window doesn't work, because if you click in the window then the program is moved to the front (and there's no way to stop this) and the window covers everything.

If you keep the window in the background, for example by creating it in an extension or application extension, then it doesn't get updated and it doesn't respond to clicks. You can create it in an extension if you go to the system zone. You can create it in an application extension when you use InitGraf and InitWindows, but no other inits.

There are 3 ways in which the desktop is drawn:

• Draw the desktop picture or pattern.
• Update the desktop window between BeginUpdate and EndUpdate.
• When you click in the desktop then it draws directly in the screen port.

I wrote a little extension to find out who creates the desktop window and which parameters are used. The desktop window is created by Finder with proc ID 2048 = WDEF 128. WDEF 128 is a pointer to a function in Finder. If I can guess how this WDEF works, then I can replace Finder. Deselecting the option "Show desktop when in background" = making the desktop window invisible = moving it to {-x,-x}. This would be the simplest solution that has no particular reason to crash, compared to an exotic extension.

I'm now looking into Finder for instructions that you don't find in a normal application, like CalcVis. Then I may guess how they do it.

[OS923]

if anyone knows that then it is you, so allow me to ask a question: how would i open an alias?

Start ResEdit. In the open dialog there's an option to open "Use alias instead of original".

[IIO]

aha, great, thanks - i knew it must be somewhere.


finder window: that WDEF 128 will receive the current monitor size at some point. after creation, from what i know.

if you know your current monitor size (and you do) you at least know what integer number(s) you have to search for when debugging.

[OS923]

There are 2 things particular about the desktop window:

• It doesn't erase the contents with white color. That's easy.
• Its structure changes when other windows are created, closed, moved, resized or collapsed. The structure is gray region minus the union of the structure of the other windows. How do you calculate this quickly and when do you recalculate it? That's the big question.

[IIO]

• It doesn't erase the contents with white color. That's easy.

figures, since it is always being filled with the default pattern or a pattern or picture from the appearance.

it is amazing how different is it from other windows.

it is the only window i know which can not be dragged with drag any window.

i can only guess how that stuff is calculated. it might absolutely be that it is not at all near the WDEF resource but somewhere much, much deeper. it should be inside the finder app though.

[OS923]

I don't have time for this now because I'm being evicted from my house. But I have to say: I requested to be evicted because I despise this landlord.

[OS923]

The libraries will be closed until April 3 because of Corona virus. You won't hear from me until after this date.

[Philgood]

Hope you are doing well over there.

[OS923]

Evictions are forbidden until july 18. In the mean time the landlord changed his mind. He wants me to stay. So back to 'normal'.

[OS923]

I haven't been able to use the internet for 2 months. First thing I did when the shops reopened, buy bin bags and a fancy tablet.

[IIO]

oh there he is. i was about to ask if someone knows if you are okay.

[adespoton]

If the current plan is to supplement the Finder, why not do it like Greg's Browser did it?  Except in this case, you'll add in support for all the things the Finder can't do, instead of just patching Apple Events to enable NextStep-style browser windows.

Has anyone heard from Greg lately?  It's possible he'd even be willing to help, or at least donate some code....

[IIO]

i believe most parts in all of these third party browsers from 1999 were relying on basic finder functions (but correct me if am wrong), while cliff´s approach is more to build a custom library of functions which are "better" than the one from apple. (you could see him here experiment with disk access methods and search algorithms)

of course it would be nice to sneak into their source or have the people here.