Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
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From: erkyrath@netcom.com (Andrew Plotkin)
Subject: Re: TADS porting question
Message-ID: <erkyrathDzx9Hz.M4L@netcom.com>
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References: <erkyrathDzt02p.n09@netcom.com> <54q5m5$mfb@milo.vcn.bc.ca> <erkyrathDzuE1M.68z@netcom.com> <54uoe3$39p@milo.vcn.bc.ca>
Date: Sun, 27 Oct 1996 06:46:46 GMT
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Neil K. Guy (nkg@vcn.bc.ca) wrote:
> Andrew Plotkin (erkyrath@netcom.com) wrote:

> : Er, I could, but it's one more thing users will have to deal with which 
> : they shouldn't.

>  Then make the option only appear if you hold down the option key when 
> selecting the menu time. :) That's what every other Mac developer seems 
> to do when they want to put in a useful feature that they feel like 
> hiding from users for some reason.

True. However, I have taken my usual tack of asking for advice and then 
ignoring it and doing what I wanted in the first place. Ha! Ha! You'll 
all rue the day, etc etc.

Seriously, I really wanted to know if it would break any *existing* games,
and nobody said "Aye". Trust me, this is a very minor point, and if it
ever becomes an issue, I'll do something about it. 

It's impossible to implement askfile() correctly on the Mac anyhow. (I
should put "correctly" in sneer-quotes, because the problem is that there
isn't enough information to determine what action is "correct".) And yet,
somehow, the standard Mac TADS runtime has always worked. How? A truly
ugly hack which manages to guess right in all known cases. I have used the
same hack. I have also used this new hack. If TADS authors start using
askfile() in creative ways, MaxTADS may break, but so may the standard TR.
So live with it. (Or switch to... uh, sorry. :-)

In a brighter tone: Hey, I've got it running, with morally-correct Mac 
filesystem calls. Looks like y'all *weren't* lying about TADS games 
having boldface! There's still a lot of work left, though -- status line, 
preferences, standalones, and the mess of memory-size options, which is 
*another* thing users shouldn't have to deal with, but I can't think of a 
way to shield them from it...

--Z

-- 

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the
borogoves..."
