If you have read 'File Formats', you will know many files which don't come from a MacOS environment haven't the necessary 'Finder Info'; so they will appear in your desk as 'generic documents', and double clicking on them won't open any application. For some files, you can rebuild this 'Finder Info' from the suffix of the file name; so if you have a file named foo.jpg; you can assume it is a JFIF image file; and you can assign to it the type 'JPEG' and if you set also the 'creator' to 'JVWR' (the 'signature' of JPEGView), the Finder will use this information to provide a valid icon for it and launch JPEGView whe you double click on it.
You can do this manually (using ResEdit, FileTyper or other similar utility) or automatically (by defining a translation table - suffix <-> type/creator). For this purpose, you can use Fetch or Internet Config.
(Note MacGzip can use Fetch only when decompressing; if you want to set the mode automatically when compressing, you must use Internet Config)
• About Fetch Prefs:
By now you can use Fetch 2.1.2 preferences in order to asign Macintosh types depending on file suffixes. In the future this feature will can disappear; since it seems Fetch newer versions will use Internet Config.
If you want to use Fetch preferences with MacGzip, but you don't want to use Fetch, you can:
1) Get Fetch and use it as an editor for the suffixes list.
2) Move the 'Fetch Prefs' from this folder to your Preferences folder and edit it with a resource editor like ResEdit.
3) Get Internet Config
• Internet Config
From "Internet Config 1.0 Press Release":
Internet Config: Solving Preference Proliferation
-------------------------------------------------
We all use many different programs to access the Internet and each of these
programs has its own preference dialog, wherein you set things like your
Email address, your FTP helper application and your preferred program to
open ".jpg" files. Keeping these preferences in synch in all your Internet
applications is becoming increasingly difficult. Worse yet, many simple
applications do not even have a mechanism for setting these preferences and
so you are stuck with the author's default preferences.
The Internet Configuration system is a solution to this problem. Internet
Config is an application that allows you to set these preferences once.
Internet Config stores these preferences is a shared database and any "IC
Aware" application will automatically get its preferences from this
database.
...
Where Do I Get Internet Config?
-------------------------------
Internet Config will run on all Macintosh Plus or newer machines that are
running System 6 or greater. Internet Config has been posted to MacGifts
and should show up on Info-Mac and UMich (and their mirror sites) soon. It
is also available from any site that holds Peter Lewis' software, namely...
ftp://redback.cs.uwa.edu.au//Others/PeterLewis/
ftp://ftp.nig.ac.jp/pub/mac/PeterLewis/
ftp://nic.switch.ch/software/mac/peterlewis/
ftp://amug.org/pub/peterlewis/
ftp://ftp.share.com/peterlewis/
ftp://cadadmin.cadlab.vt.edu/peterlewis/
ftp://ftp.acns.nwu.edu/pub/newswatcher/helpers/
ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/
• Notes
-If you want to use Fetch Prefs, check the 'Use Fetch Prefs' in MacGzip decompress preferences. MacGzip defaults are to use IC.
-MacGzip looks for a file named 'Fetch Prefs' in your Preferences folder, so you should use Fetch 2.1.2 or later. (earlier versions of Fetch use 'Fetch Preferences', just the same name of Aldus Fetch preferences (an image database))
-Fetch can find its preferences as well in the preferences folder as in the same folder where the application resides. If your 'Fetch Prefs' file is in your Fetch folder, you should move it to the Preferences folder in your system folder.
-MacGzip uses the Ostrich approach for Internet Config Prefs. This means that IC settings are read just at MacGzip startup, (or when you activate the option in the preferences dialog) if you change them after that, 'changes wont apply till nex time etc etc'
• Suffixes:
These are the suffixes I have set in the 'Fetch Prefs':
