At 7:16 AM +0100 on 12/28/00, lcs@... wrote:


>Hi Heather,
>
>  > In order for a PPC app to gracefully quit on a 68k machine, I'll have
>  > to check the hardware and throw up an alert if it's not PPC.
>
>By GESTALT often mentioned here?  Too few MetroWerks
>compiled programs post an alert that my wife on her 68K
>can *understand*!

Yes, I have already made sure to add that to a StuffIt SDK I'm 
working on for Aladdin Systems.  It requires PPC because of shared 
library access.  I added a Compile Shutdown line to the header file.

I have to say something here though.  Since the shell is really for 
programmers and not end users, it really should run on 68k machines 
as is.  I don't think it's my responsibility to anticipate every 
programmer's or end users use of the shell.  In other words, 
programmer beware.  The applications in the 'C' version of the 
StuffIt SDK are like this, sure they run, if you have the debugger 
running.  A few just call debugstr rather than really outputting text 
to a window.  My FB versions are a little nicer, calling Stop with 
some text but these aren't designed to be full running programs just 
examples for _others_ to use.

>I would have guessed that Apple Events is the crucial mechanism
>since adequate Finder D&D talents have been present
>since the trash can of 1984.  Anyone up on this?

I know the D&D was in System 7.5, the Finder did some itself, beyond 
that I'm not sure.  AppleEvents are part of it and AE's were 
available before 7.5 but I think that the D&D action on other 
application's icons is a function of the 7.5 Finder.

>I've develloped an affection for parameter blocks.  (I'm
>by nature a sucker for low-level stuff:-)

While I don't have any problem with them, I do have a problem with 
how FB handles some of these things.  I much rather have FB use 
Apple's Universal Headers and have everything defined.  We could even 
get some respectability and free advertising by getting Apple to add 
a FB^3 conditional macro section in the ConditionalMacros.h file.

I'd much rather use:

Dim pb as ParamBlockRec: pb.ioRefNum = 1

Rather than:

Dim pb;256: pb.ioRefNum = 1

Sure they look alike but the FB way isn't as readable as the true 
record way.  Before I knew what I was doing (a little anyway), I 
wouldn't have been sure what was going on.  I have to admit that the 
ParamBlockRec is a little complicated.  It is a union of other 
records with no other Dim statements.

*** One weird thing, maybe someone knows why this is but does anyone 
know just how large a parameter block record should be.  CodeWarrior 
reports ParamBlockRec size as 80 bytes, I can make a true record the 
same size but I've usually seen 256 as the size for it in FB. ***