🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <12009@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> ee299bw@sdcc6.ucsd.edu (Unbroken Chain) writes:
>In article <3073@unisoft.UUCP> cander@unisoft.UUCP (Charles Anderson) writes:
>>on one file and then use clover-O to open it.  When it fails it get the
>>proverbial "Application is missing or busy".  This just started
>>happening in the last week.  I ran Disinfectant 2.0, but it didn't show
>>any viruses.  Any clues for the clueless?
>
>I get a similar message from time to time. The weird thing is, for
>me, if I immediately double click again, it WILL open.
>
>Have you tried doing this? It happens to me with Excel and Word 4.0 as well.
>Microsoft stuff is just plain weird. I think their interface with
>the Finder does odd stuff. With Word under Multifinder, I often get 
>files or folders which can't be deleted until I quit Word, even
>though there are no Word documents open. I never have this problem
>with any other apps. MicroSoft tech support says that their products
>"behave just like everyone else's."  Yeah, right.



OK, here goes.  To clarify the issue:

When a user double-clicks a document, the Finder looks at the
document's signature (creator bits) in the document's Finder
information to see if it matches the signature of any application on
any currently mounted disk.  The Finder will launch the first
application it finds with a matching creator signature.  Under
MultiFinder, this process is modified so that the list of open
applications is checked first to see if one of them has a matching
signature; if so, MultiFinder sends the application a message to open
the document.  [The latter part doesn't always work, either; the
application must have the appropriate menu commands or resources for
MultiFinder to send it the message.]

The Finder generates the "Application is busy or missing" message when
it can't find an application with a matching signature.  Really, the
only way an application can influence this process is by setting or
not setting the creator bits in the document's Finder information,
with the following exceptions: 

  * The program could set the file's invisible bit.  In this case the
    issue is moot, because you couldn't see the file to double-click
    on it anyway.

  * The program could set the document's Bundle bit.  This isn't very
    likely; the program would probably do this only under exceptional
    circumstances.  Setting the Bundle bit on a document causes all
    other documents of the same type to be identified as being
    owned by that document.  If you had a Word document called "Your
    mother was a hampster" and you set its Bundle bit, all of your
    standard Word documents (i.e., not the dicionaries or the help
    files) would be identified by the Finder as "Your mother was a
    hampster" documents.

There may be other ways for an Application to mess up the way the
Finder opens documents, but I suspect that they're somewhat obscure,
and that the application wouldn't have any real reason for employing
them.  (I could certainly be wrong, and am open to corrections.)


The long and short of all this is that if you get the "Application is
busy or missing" message, it's not the application's fault, it's the
Finder's.  What's probably happened is that the desktop file--the file
that contains all of the creator signatures of all of your
applications--has been corrupted or has gotten too large, and the
Finder can't find the signature or location of the correct
application.  If you want to fix the problem, then, you have to
persuade the desktop file that it really _does_ know where the correct
application is.  These steps have been recommended by nine out of
ten Mac users to cure your desktop ills (and they won't stick to
your dental work!):


  * Rebuild the desktop file.  You can do this by holding down the
    command and option keys together 1) during the startup sequence,
    or 2) when you insert the disk in question.  When you do this, you
    should get a dialog box asking you if you really want to rebuild
    the desktop file; click OK.  Wait a couple of minutes, and then
    try double-clicking your documents again.  If it still doesn't
    work, try the next step.  WARNING: rebuilding your desktop file
    has the unfortunate side effect of erasing all of the comments in
    the Finder's Get Info box.

  * Copy the file with the Duplicate command in the File menu, and 
    delete the original.  If this doesn't work, or you don't have 
    sufficient disk space, then

  * Copy the application with the Duplicate command, and then delete
    the original.  This puts the application's information at the top
    of the desktop file, so the Finder is more likely to find it.

  * Put the document in the same folder as the application.  Open it,
    then move it back into its folder and try again.

  * Open the application's window before you double-click on your
    document.  You may have to do this every time you want to open
    your document(s).



Hope this helps (whew!).

>Dave
>-- 
>***********************    Dave Chesavage    ****************************

-- 

David Walton		Internet: dwal@midway.uchicago.edu
University of Chicago   {  Any opinions found herein are mine, not  }
Computing Organizations {  those of my employers (or anybody else). }