Subject: The scrap suggestion, Attn Mike &Sam Th
From: P.Denis (pablod10@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri May 19 2000 - 11:52:09 CDT
Hopefully this time it will get through if so,
Hello, first please excuse my ignorance but I can't use your forum I actually found your reply's to my email in the bulk folder of Hotmail and only noticed it because of a rapid rise in junk mail from 100 to 141 in one day, subsequently seeing that the abiword mailer sent most of them.
1.Is this normal?
2.how do I stop it from sending email that do not correspond to the questions asked?
3.Is the forum only accessable through the archives link?
4. where can I find the question askes for I can't seem to find themin the archives for May?
The following is directed towards "Mike and Sam th"
On the original suggestion of "The Scrap" I'll try to hopefully answer some of your reply's, windows has the extension for the scrap as "SHS" and it opens with "RUNDLL32". (shs is not necessarily a format, possibly just an allocation of an extension so that rundll32 can be applied and hence rundll32 can execute the word processor that created the scrap)
I asked for the suggestion, for I use the function regularly as an example I have the wordpad Icon on the task bar, I open it paste or type any notes highlight it or select all and drag it to the desktop. The scrap assumes the name of the first words of the text or you can rename it anything you want whithout having to worry about extensions, you can also open it, add whatever, close it and it is automatically saved. Another advantage of having this feature with "SHS and RUNDLL32", is that it remembers the word processor that created it, as an example create one with word pad, the scrap opens to word pad, create one with Lotus Word Pro and that scrap will open with Lotus Word Pro. Both scraps are identical until you open the scrap and are presented with the processor that created it.
Hopefully the figs came through with the icon that I have for the "SHS" scrap extension.
Fig 1 renamed word pad scrap Fig 2 as created Lotus word pro scrap.
In my Limited knowledge I would say it may work something along these lines;
1.SHS is not a specific format just a permit to create a file (drag & drop, auto save, etc. For if you create one outright on the desktop eg new, .doc/rename it to xyz.SHS and try to open it, it fails as not being "a valid scrap document/shortcut file").
2.Rundll32 is the link between the word processor that created the file and the scrap extension. (allows different word processors to utilise the scrap function without applying a specific format)
3.Therefore SHS is the style (not a format) of the file and Rundll32 applies the word processor that created it, and its the word processor that holds the files default format. (So the word processor needs only to work with the method, not create it)
If, as in one of your emails you where to apply eg, "rtf" format, it would defeat the purpose for all scraps would be "rtf" and all "rtf" files would become scraps. Not a good thing, for the scraps have to be format independant, but word processor dependant as I hope this email explains.
Now, if I'm correct in this assumption, the SHS and RUNDLL32 actions should be replicable for a crossplatform version if it doesn't already exist,(if you could find a Os system other than windows and do it, I would say that a similar type of shs and rundll32 exist) for ultimately all the word processor has to do is to be able to execute the instructuons from RUNDLL32 to handle the SHS file it originally created, as the"Scrap". As the inverse would apply in the scraps creation from Abi word.
From what I can see;
no specific format required for the word processor handles it like a traditional shortcut.
a word processor that can work with/create,
the dumy extension "shs" and
the interface "rundll32" to handle the procedure
I hope this helps a bit.
Regards P.Denis
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Fri May 19 2000 - 11:51:16 CDT
