Jul 94 Tips
Volume Number: 10
Issue Number: 7
Column Tag: Tips & Tidbits
Tips & Tidbits 
By Scott T Boyd, Editor
Note: Source code files accompanying article are located on MacTech CD-ROM orsource code disks.
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Tip/hack of the month
Startup Items: Nice Guys Finish Last
You can put any kind of programs, folders, or aliases in the Startup Items folder
in your System folder, and they will open automatically when you startup your Mac.
Some people put an alias of their most commonly used folder into their Startup Items,
so it will open and become the frontmost window in Finder.
Startup items open in alphabetical order, and the last item opened will be the one
that stays in the foreground once the startup is complete. Unfortunately, the last one
opened may not be the one you want up front. Here’s how you can force a particular
Startup Item to open last.
Make an alias of the item you want opened last, and rename it to Option-z, the
Omega character ‘Ω’. It sorts alphabetically after most other characters and seems
very appropriate.
Drop the alias into the Startup Items folder; it will open last. If it’s has already
been opened and switched into background, this last startup item will force it to the
foreground.
My Ω startup item is an alias of the hard drive itself, which opens the root
directory of the drive and pulls the Finder into the foreground. That’s the way I like it,
but if you’d rather just have the Finder in front without any particular folder or
window open, here’s a hack that’ll do it:
1) Create an empty folder in the root directory of your startup drive, and name it
“Desktop_Folder” (note the underscore in the name).
2) Create an alias to that folder, and rename it Ω (omega is option-z).
3) Throw away the empty “Desktop_Folder” folder and empty the trash.
4) Launch ResEdit and select Open from the File menu. Check the box for “Use alias
instead of original file” and open the Ω alias.
5) Open the “alis” resource and find each instance of the string “Desktop_Folder”;
it appears in 2 places. Change the underscore in each to a space, so it reads
“Desktop Folder” instead.
6) Save your changes and quit from ResEdit.
7) Put the Ω alias into your Startup Items folder and reboot.
When Finder opens the Ω alias, Finder will come to the foreground and stay
there; no folder will open because the Desktop folder is already displayed.
- Lee David Rimar, Absoft Corporation
Fat Gold
I found a neat way to build “fat” applications with CodeWarrior Gold:
1. Create a 68K project & resource file.
2. Build the 68K project & set the application name to something like
“app.PPC.proj.rsrc” so it will appear as a resource file to the PPC project (the
type & creator can still be what you’d have for an application).
3. When you build the PPC project, the 68K application will be included as the
project resource file.
You’ll now have a “fat” application and you can also use the 68K-only “ resource
file” as the 68K version or for debugging if you're running on a non-PowerMac.
- Mike Cohen, ISIS International