Allan,

I am so glad you're considering this. I come from a NeXT/OpenStep background and personally, I wish OSX didn't have creator codes at all, but it does, so best to make the most of it. I know the whole creator code scheme flies in the face of Apple (or rather the ex-NeXT folk at Apple) trying to convince us all not to use them and use extensions instead, however, so many other apps including new ones like SubEthaEdit use them already, and TextMate not using them won't really help the situation. Until Apple removes the ability to use creator codes, I believe that TextMate should at least provide the option to use them.

I speak as someone who used BBEdit for a while (and didn't really like it), moved to SubEthaEdit and had to manually change all the creator codes on loads of files to the SubEthaEdit ones. I then had to add .txt extensions to all these files so that they would play nice with TextMate.

I personally favour a combination of (3) and (4). That is, have a global default of either on or off and then in the save panel be able to override that default if need be. For those that don't like creator codes, maybe the save panel should also provide the option to strip existing ones on the file you are saving.

If you think that they should be user-configurable based on extension then I guess that's another pane to add to your preferences. Personally I don't have the need for it but others may.

Regards,

Stuart

On 18 Nov 2004, at 22:30, Allan Odgaard wrote:

How do people feel about having TextMate set the creator code for saved files?

1. should it do it only for files w/o extension?
2. for specific (user setable) extensions?
3. have a global on/off switch?
4. be setable in the save panel?

The "problem" with creator codes is that they take precedence over file extension, so if for example you save a .html file with TextMate, that file will open in TextMate (if double clicked) even if you've instructed Finder to use OmniWeb to open HTML files (but you can change it pr. file though).

So creator codes does IMHO break the "change all" feature of Finder.

Personally I'd probably like #1 from above, maybe #2, though I generally do prefer my files to have a blank creator code.

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On 19 Nov 2004, at 9:30 am, Allan Odgaard wrote:

How do people feel about having TextMate set the creator code for saved files?

1. should it do it only for files w/o extension?
2. for specific (user setable) extensions?
3. have a global on/off switch?
4. be setable in the save panel?

Where 2 is concerned, it isn't really necessary to have TextMate 'hijack' certain extensions because you can use the Finder's info window to make changes to which app opens which files.

I would, however, like TextMate to set its creator code when I open a file that was created in another app, make a change, and save it. Maybe #4 is the best fit there.