[mdlug] The new "surface" computer

[Garry Stahl]

Michael Rudas wrote:
> On 7/18/07, G Balaji <gopinathan.balaji at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>   
>> On 7/18/07, Garry Stahl <tesral at comcast.net> wrote:
>>     
>
>   
>>> Amiga (yea that again) uses file headers in that fashion from the very
>>> start.  Learning to add file extensions was something I had to do once I
>>> started using DOS based systems.
>>>       
>
>   
>> I am not familiar with Amiga. In Amiga, how were files associated with
>> applications? Was the operating system aware of the
>> file-header-application association?
>>     
>
> There was NO direct association between files and applications in
> AmigaOS through at least v2.x-- the data-file icons had a field that
> held the application-name associated with that file.  This meant that
> to change the default application for a file-type the user had to
> track down each file of that type and edit the icon's field to reflect
> the new app.  I got around this by using the very-powerful "assign"
> command.  The icon's field would contain something like "jpg:" for a
> JPG file, and the startup-sequence would contain the command (for
> example) "assign jpeg-view jpg:" where "jpeg-view" was the (example)
> program used for viewing such files. If I wanted to change the default
> viewer, I edited the startup-sequence.  This may have changed for
> later versions.
>   

I didn't use icons for most files.  In fact saved them as "no icon".  I
would strip file names in mass and dump them all in one directory. 
Applications such as DOpus, Multiview, and ImageFX had no problem
telling them apart and opening them correctly.

-- 
Garry  AKA  --Phoenix--  Rising above the Flames.

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes
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