Blesser
an application by
Dave McGary


Version 1.1

What is it ?

Blesser is an application which allows you to have as many complete system folders as you want on any bootable HFS device (volume) which can be written to.  Blesser allows you to select which system folder (of those present on the startup device) will be used when the computer is restarted.  This folder is referred to as the Òblessed folderÓ in Apple Computer's Macintosh Technical Notes.  The selection operation is therefore called ÒblessingÓ a folder, which is where the name Blesser came from.


Who might want to use it ?

Blesser was written to make it easier to use a variety of systems on the same Macintosh.  People who need to use both a Japanese system (KanjiTalk) and an Arabic system (AIS), or both German and French systems, will find that this application makes the transition between systems much easier, and in fact, as painless and simple as it can possibly be.  Blesser makes life easier for anyone who uses more than one version of Macintosh system software.
 

How do I use it ?

Double click on Blesser from the Finder to start it.  To tell it which system folder you want to bless, open that folder (in the file selection dialog box) and open the file inside it named ÒSystemÓ.  Blesser will make sure there is a file named ÒFinderÓ in the same folder, and will then proceed to bless the folder.  If there are any problems in this procedure, Blesser will let you know what the problem was, and what your options are.  After the folder has been blessed, you will have the following options: Restart, Shut Down and Undo.  Restart will be the default, since you will need to Restart in order to make the newly blessed system file active.  You will also have the option to Quit if you are not changing blessed folders on the startup device.  If old system software is being used, the Shut Down option may not be available.

To make it as simple as possible to change systems, give appropriate names to all of your system folders (System 6.0, KanjiTalk 2.0, etc), place them inside a new folder named ÒSystemsÓ, and place Blesser in the new folder with the system folders.  Once this is done, double click on Blesser and the file selection dialog will present the names of your system folders and allow you to choose one.




What's the difference between one version and another?

I have always known that users could get into trouble if they Quit from Blesser after completing the blessing process on the startup device.  This is only safe when you Restart or Shut Down the system.  So, in order to keep  users out of trouble, Blesser versions 1.1 and later allow you to Quit only when you are not changing blessed folders on the startup device.

In order to keep users from Quitting, I had to implement the Restart function for systems which do not support the Shutdown Manager.  Beginning with version 1.1, Blesser will allow users to Restart while running on any machine, using any system version.

Versions 1.1 and later of Blesser will display the version number below the copyright notice on the screen.

Version 1.1 and later will automatically select your system file and restart your Macintosh if the option key is held down while starting the application, or while opening a folder which contains a system file.  You determine which folder is to be blessed by opening the selected system folder.  This means you don't have to select and open the file named ÒSystemÓ after opening the system folder.

Before version 1.0b2, Blesser would not work properly with the Japanese system (KanjiTalk 2.0 and later).  The Japanese system file is the only system file Apple Computer Inc. makes at this time, for any country in the world, which starts with a small ÒsÓ.  Blesser will now work properly regardless of the case of the characters, as long as the name of the system file is still ÒsystemÓ.

Blesser versions 1.0b2 and later occupy about 14K on your disk drive, compared to 40K for version 1.0b1.  This size reduction allows Blesser to run faster!


Warning!

There is one situation which can be problematic.  Blesser does not support the use of a startup application under single-Finder.  If you are not using MultiFinder, and you use the ÒSet StartupÓ option (located in the Finder ÒSpecialÓ menu) the Startup application will no longer run at start-up time once Blesser has been used.  This problem may be fixed in a future release.

I hope Blesser makes your work less tedious.

Have fun  -  Dave McGary



