(OFF) Missing Link has devolved...
(OFF) Missing Link has devolved...
- Subject: (OFF) Missing Link has devolved...
- From: Peter Bunn <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 12:37:32 -0600
Happy New Year All:
I've mentioned Missing Link here more than once before and I think I may
have very nearly worn out my welcome, but... I can't recall a time when
I've passed up an opportunity to publicly disgrace myself, so here goes...
Perhaps the only feature of Missing Link that might be of interest to
list members is that it allows almost any file, folder or function on
disk to be opened, run or launched from an HTML page with a link in the
following format (opening and closing brackets omitted here):
A HREF="Open:Macintosh HD/Folder 1/Folder 2/File">File</A
The linked item opens just as if it had been double-clicked in the Finder.
The basic functionality is achieved with an AppleScript application of
roughly 4K. The 'Open Engine' is a component of Missing Link, but may be
used alone. In various forms, the Open Engine works on almost any Mac OS
(since 7.5.x ?)... using almost any browser.
Likely, the only use of value for any of you would be as a means of
providing HTML documentation for your own work or products that included
feature demonstrations of on-disk items.
On the one hand, I would like to offer the Open Engine as freeware,
freely distributed. It may be the only way to get it (or Missing Link)
into wider use. On the other hand, it would be nice to make a modest
buck on it... if at all possible. The choice has become something of a
dilemma for me, and I would welcome suggestions and comment.
The principal stumbling block to _any_ distribution is that I have not
yet devised a way to write to the file 'com.apple.internetconfig.plist'
in OS X. As of the moment, in X, the end user must make manual entries
in Explorer's preferences dialog in order to enable the Open Engine for
any/all other browsers.
(I wonder if it's safe to assume that the data forms for helpers in the
.plist file are the same from machine to machine... that is, whether I
could find the offset of the first helper entry and dump the data for my
helpers (as that data appears in my own .plist) into the user's .plist?)
A variety of other browser helper functions is possible. With uniformly
constructed links, it may be possible to pass parameters or commands to
applications from links as well, rather than simply opening or running
the linked item.
I will/would continue working on Missing Link, but - as I'm sure others
among you have sometimes experienced with your own efforts - the interest
expressed so far has been underwhelming... and it can be awfully hard to
maintain one's enthusiasm for beating the horse after all life signs are
gone.
Missing Link as a whole has a variety of other useful features and has
been substantially improved since I last mentioned it here. There is a
complete description of it (and two new demo downloads) at:
http://www.mhtc.net/~bunnz/scriptlink.html
Thank You All Again For Your Time, Help And Forbearance.
Peter B.
-----
"Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic." - (unknown)
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