When saving a file, one often sees a dialog like this: (I am assuming that you are reading this document with TeachText or SimpleText, so you can see the pictures.)
I don't know about you, but when I see this dialog, about 90% of the time I do want to replace the existing file. So I used ResEdit hacks to make the Replace button be the default, like so,
or to override the dialog entirely by saving with the option key down. I distributed a document titled “Replace-Existing Hacks” describing how to make these modifications by editing the PACK 3 resource in the System file. But lately, I have found that the hacks do not work on the PowerMacs and some other recent models, because these Macs use directory dialog code that is not in a PACK 3 resource. Hence the accompanying extension, which makes Replace the default button.
The Replace! extension patches one trap, _DialogDispatch. The patch is very small and fast, and _DialogDispatch isn’t called all that often anyway, so there will not be any detectable change in your Mac’s performance. As for PowerMacs, since Apple has not yet implemented _DialogDispatch in native code, there would be no advantage to writing native code for my patch.
This extension is copyrighted freeware. It may be distributed freely for non-commercial purposes.
