🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1123@aucs.UUCP> peter@aucs.UUCP (Peter Steele) writes:
>> Actually, what I would really like is to be able to bring the finder
>> up anytime I want to, and remove it when I am done (like I did under
>> switcher).
>
>I don't know how it happened, and I haven't tried to reproduce it, but
...
>Whether the finder had actually been removed from memory I don't know. It
>sure seemed like it though.

If you make yourself an FKEY containing two bytes: A9F4( ExitToShell),
you can use this to exit any running application, whether MultiFinder
is active or not.  This applies equally well to the Finder.  If you
quit the Finder this way under MultiFinder, then when you finally quit
your last remaining application, the Finder will execute its startup
script, contained in "Finder Startup" in the system.  If you quit the
Finder this way without MultiFinder active, then you get a relaunch of
the Finder (boring.)  I use this when I have a lot of work to do using
two applications and MultiFinder, and want to skip the DeskTop window
when switching between them.  This is not as good as being able to
launch the Finder on demand, but is close enough for me.

A word of caution is indicated here:  When you call ExitToShell
without the knowledge and consent of the running application, then
said application does not get to do whatever cleanup it needs to do
when it exits.  With the Finder, this means that if you spend a lot of
time rearranging your DeskTop, then blast it with an ExitToShell FKEY,
your DeskTop changes will not get recorded on disk.

It would be nice if the Finder could:

     a)  Have a "Quit" menu item, like everybody else is required to
         have.
     b)  Be able to "exec" an application under MultiFinder, thereby
         allowing the user full use of his memory when said memory
         is finite.  (Like behavior under Switcher.)

One could surmise that Peter's Finder ran into an error condition, and
gave up the ghost.  Usually under these conditions you get an alert
from MultiFinder "The application has unexpectedly quit." but maybe he
missed it.
Earle R. Horton, Thayer School of Engineering, Hanover, NH
  I wouldn't mind dying -- it's that business of having to stay dead that
  scares the sh*t out of me.  -- R. Geis