[Radiance-general] Mac Tiger quirks

[Thomas Bleicher]

On Tue, Aug 16, 2005 at 10:08:31 -0700, Fitzsimmons, Rob wrote:
> I've upgraded to Tiger, and now I have problems changing the default to open
> pic files with Photosphere
> What I do:
>  select a .pic file - Get info
> it will open with Preview - I tell it to open with Photosphere
> I select "Change All" to make all my .pic file to open with Photosphere
> I get a pop-up and I confirm that's what I want to do
> I go back to the get info screen - and its set to open with Preview.
> 
>  i can do it one at a time, but I can't get it to change all.
> 
> Anyone have any ideas?

Out of interest I did a small search in Apples support section and
found how to do it on a OS X server:

==================================================================
This article describes how to change the default application for
opening a particular a file.


The default application is the one which opens when you open a file.

Mac OS X Server matches applications with files they can open
automatically. You can't influence the available default applications
for files in any way other than by installing or removing applications.

To change a file's default application, follow these steps:

      1. In the Workspace Manager, select the file by clicking on it.
      2. Open the Tools menu and choose Inspector.
      3. Choose Tools from the Inspector pop-up menu.
      4. Select an application's icon from the center of the window.
      5. Click Set Default.
==================================================================

Don't know if this is any help on a workstation.



> I trashed ~Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.plist
            ^ looks like this is in your HOME directory

If you only deleted your private copy Preview will use system defaults.
You need to change those but as far as I can tell Apple does not want
anybody to mess with the *.plist file(s). They look like some kind of
mime-type definition to me and would be the right place to do it.

> BTW - Preview now opens hdr and exr files - which may be part of
> the problem

"Opens hdr and exr" ... successfully? If so, *.plist definitions have
been replaced (I saw in an article that this would happen during the
update) and OS X simply does not know any more that there is another
application for these file types.

If it doesn't work, I think the *.hdr extension gets missinterpreted
as HDRI TIFF files and the default for TIFFs (Preview) is started.
I don't know *.exr; some species of JPEG?


OT: I was going to buy an iMac in the near future. But this short
    trip into Apple user information did put me off a bit. Everthing
    that looked halfway technical wasn't even mentioned on any of
    the pages. But that's exactly the kind of information I'm looking
    for when I have to consult manuals.

    I know there are a few MaxOS X user out there. How are your
    experiences with Radiance etc. on OS X? Do the Unix apps work
    in a one-mouse-button environment?


Any feedback is welcome,

Thomas