On Dec 7, 2010, at 3:10 PM, Seth Willits wrote: > On Dec 6, 2010, at 3:11 PM, Charlie Dickman wrote: > >> In the days of System 9 there was a thing known as the desktop database and >> a number of applications/utilities that "remembered" the location of things >> on the desktop and would restore a saved configuration on command. > > Heh. I made one. Clean Desk was the first program I ever sold. I made like > $1200 off of that thing. Pretty nice chunk of change when you're 14. :-) > > > >> For some time now I have been trying to find a similar OS X implementation >> that actually works. All of the ones I have tried mess up when trying to >> restore a saved desktop state; some put icons on top of other icons and some >> place the icons off the screen. >> >> I've tried searching the web for a description of where OS X keeps desktop >> icon placement information, how to read it and how to save it with no luck. > > It really hasn't changed. On OS 9 you had to get the position via > AppleScript. It's the same now unless you dig into the private file format of > .DS_Store (which I spent a loooong time doing for DMG Canvas), but then you > can only read the file, not write to it, so you still need to use AppleScript > to get/set the file position reliably, unless you're going to force the user > to quit Finder, rewrite the private file, and relaunch Finder. > > > -- > Seth Willits > Remember to take into account display configurations.
Every time the display configuration changes, the context of what is possible and what is visible will change. If you attempt to restore something to a location that is now off the visible portion of the screen, the user may become VERY frustrated. (think connected to larger, or additional display, but then using smaller or fewer displays) And avoid attempting to modify .DS_Store files._______________________________________________ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to arch...@mail-archive.com
