Lofland bLOG

Back in 98 we had some ancient Mac Classic’s in a classroom that I worked in. I really grew to loath those things. The most annoying thing was whenever they were unhappy with you they just popped up this little picture of a bomb. It was really the Mac’s supposedly non-offensive way of giving you the finger. But that isn’t the point of this.

One of the students there was really into computers and considered himself somewhat of a geek. He also was really into using the term “That’s the BOMB!” I never really could figure out if “the bomb” was good or bad. Whenever the Mac would give me the finger (bomb), though, I would always exclaim “That’s the BOMB!” He would come running over and say, “What, what, where, what is it?” I would just point at the screen and say, “There, see, right there, on the screen. That’s the bomb.” He would just roll his eyes at me and leave.

But that really is NOT the point.

I wanted to open up a file on the Mac. The dude was not networked, not much was back then, and so it was sneaker net. It was a simple task, I just wanted to open up a text file on the Mac that I hadn’t actually TYPED on the Mac. It happened to come from a PC, but it was just straight text.

I tried a couple of directions and it turns out the Mac was happy enough to read a PC formatted disk, which was really cool. So I copied my little text file onto the desktop of the Mac. Now what? I tried finding a way to drop to a command prompt so I could just do a “type” (DOS) or “cat” (UNIX) command, but the Mac HAS no command shell, either under it or on top of it. Nothing, just the GUI.

I dig through all of the programs and such and it appears that the only thing that is even remotely part of the default install of the Mac OS (must have been like 7 or 7.1 maybe?) that deals with text files is something called “TeachText.” I don’t know what it is supposed to teach or be taught, but it isn’t real bright. I opened up TeachText, used the menu and tried to open my text file. No go, didn’t like it and couldn’t see it. I tried renaming the file .txt, .doc, .tt, etc. No go, it didn’t’ care. I tried dragging the file’s icon onto the TeachText icon. No go. Tried opening TeachText and dragging the file into the program. No go. I mash a bunch of keys in frustration, and the Mac give me the finger (bomb).

Lovely, you can’t open a dang text file from a PC on a Mac?

So I hunted around and found a self-proclaimed Mac guru. I learned all about data forks and resource forks. Seemed like a really cool idea. Why should your file’s entire personality be tied into some stupid 3 letter extension? I could definitely see the benefits of this “resource fork.” Apparently my PC file only had a data fork, and no resource fork, and so the Mac had no clue what it was. So instead of just renaming the file to whatever.txt, as I would on a DOS/Windows box, I just had to give it a resource fork that told the Mac that it was a TeachText file. Never mind that notepad on Windows will attempt to open any file you try to give it, I guess the Mac is made for stupid people who might try to open the wrong file with Notepad. Don’t they know that most stupid people use Windows, not Mac’s?

“So anyway,” I ask, “how do we make the resource fork?

“Oh, easy, you just use Norton Utilities for the Mac or something like that.”

“Huh!?! You mean I have to go buy third party software just to tell this blasted machine to open a text file?!”

“Well, uh, yeah.”

Dumb, dumb, dumb . . .

Ok, so we scrounge around and just happen to actually dig up an old copy (probably pirated, but who cares at this point) of Norton Utilities for the Mac. I fire it up, and take a look. Sure enough, the PC file has a data fork but no resource fork.

“So what do I do?”

“Oh, just make a resource fork for it.”

“Ok, what do I put in it?”

“Oh, I have no clue, the only way to tell is to look at a file that is what you want it to be like and make it like that one.”

Head hitting keyboard, Mac returns the finger (bomb).

So I have to open TeachText, make a dummy file and save it. Then open that up in the Norton Utilities program and look at the resource fork and write down the information on paper, then attempt to make a resource fork for the file from the PC that looks like this the dummy file.

Wow, what a headache, but dude, I got the PC file to open up on the Mac! Now, why in the heck did I want to do that in the first place? I have no idea, I can’t remember anymore. Oh well.

I’ve seen some of those old Mac Classic’s hollowed out and turned into fish tanks. I think that is really cool, way prettier, just as useful, and those fish never give you the finger (bomb), because they don’t have any (fingers or bombs).

Disclaimer: Mac’s and PC’s have come a long ways since then. I am for using whatever tool gets the job done best. I have no particular OS loyalty. I do enjoy OS flame wars though, and whenever someone starts up a Mac/Windows war the above experience is what I always think back to.