System 6.0.8 file types and associated applications

[kingchops]

I'm a newcomer to the old Mac OS's, only really got involved with it due to buying some old compact macs through ebay. So this subject is probably old hat to many on here, but a problem I'm having with my Plus running system 6.0.8 is that when I double click on a file it doesn't launch in anything. Now I know if the resource fork for a particular file is missing this is the problem, but many of the files I try to open are recognised by the system i.e they have a recognised icon. My question is how do I associate a particular file type with an application on system 6.0.8? This problem is also occuring with text files i.e the icon is clearly a document or text file but I only get an error when I double click to open it. With .sit archives I can't launch them by double clicking but I can go into Stuffit Expander (4.x) and they open fine. Is there some file I can edit to create the required application associations?

[Mk.558]

If the resource fork isn't roasted by a non-Mac OS, then the type/creator info could be lost as well. Type and creator can be modified in ResEdit or CreatorChanger, or the like.

System 6 doesn't really support hot-launching associated applications for certain documents. System 7.5 is a bit better for that but all throughout the Classic OS range it's a bit of a sore point. For instance you might download a driver compressed into a .sit file into 9.2.2, then try to open it like you would normally do and it kicks back a dialog saying it doesn't know what application is associated with that file type when Stuffit Expander is on the system. Part of the reason for this is Macintosh Easy Open more or less has to be manually configured for odd file types for it to do this.

It really wasn't until OS X that this became more intelligent. Although Windows can do the same exact thing, if it doesn't know to associate .dwg with AutoCAD then it'll pop the dialogue asking which application to open it with.

[Charlieman]

In System 6 and earlier, the Desktop Manager (apologies if the name is inaccurate) is not very sophisticated. When file associations are broken, you can often fix them by locating the application that you want to open a file type and duplicating it. Then delete the original version. The duplication process updates the "desktop database" which is basically a resource that acts as a lookup table.

Alternatively, plonk a copy of the desired app on the desktop and use it to open your files on demand.

Your old Mac won't map file extensions to an application unless you have a mapping INIT installed (eg a very old version of Internet Config). However it is possible that your hard disk is messed up and a clean build would make sense. If you have done a clean build, ignore the last sentence.

[kingchops]

I'll give duplicating the applications a go and see if that works. The hard drive I'm using at the moment is the HD20SC which had System 6.0.1 on it, so first thing I did was upgrade it to System 6.0.8. Don't know if that caused any issues. I might try re-formatting the hard drive at some stage and doing a clean install of 6.0.8. I might also try going to System 7 on the other HD.

[24bit]

You certainly tried the most obvious already?
You can rebuild the Desktop manually by holding down the Option and Command (Apple) keys while the computer starts up. Click OK when you see the message "Are you sure you want to rebuild the Desktop file on the disk "your disk"? Comments in info windows will be lost."
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2344

[Scott Baret]

Kingchops, I hope you saved that copy of 6.0.1!!! It's a rare one in the wild!!!

[Charlieman]

A followup to this post was mistakenly added at:
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=18705#p176324

Could a mod plonk it over here, please?