Stapler: I remade a 32 year old classic Macintosh app

[gingerbeardman]

Stapler: I remade a 32 year old classic Macintosh app ⌘I Get Info

A couple of days ago I was reading on Hacker News about a feature in some Linux window managers where they allow collections of tabs from different apps.

blog.gingerbeardman.com

I still dream of this weird task-based way of working, with apps like Stapler (1992, Patterson Software Works) and LaunchList (2009, Ali Rantakari) so I made my own take for modern macOS.

You might like it because you will discover the classic Stapler app!

https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/stapler-11

Cheers!
matt

 

[akator70]

Very cool. I'm going to play with this later!

 

[akator70]

Opps, duplicate post.

 

[sstaylor]

So, not SimStapler.

https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/simstapler

 

[cheesestraws]

This is nifty!

 

[gingerbeardman]

Cheers! @cheesestraws

@sstaylor if I had a penny for every time somebody mentioned SimStapler, I'd have... five pennies! Happy to yank on that memory

 

[Nixontheknight]

Stapler: I remade a 32 year old classic Macintosh app ⌘I Get Info

A couple of days ago I was reading on Hacker News about a feature in some Linux window managers where they allow collections of tabs from different apps.

blog.gingerbeardman.com

I still dream of this weird task-based way of working, with apps like Stapler (1992, Patterson Software Works) and LaunchList (2009, Ali Rantakari) so I made my own take for modern macOS.

You might like it because you will discover the classic Stapler app!

https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/stapler-11

Cheers!
matt

so, was it "aliases before aliases" or am I misreading it?

 

[gingerbeardman]

Sorry, I'm not totally clear about your question so forgive me if I'm answering the wrong thing.

But classic Stapler was a wrapper for System 7 aliases, much like my modern Stapler is a wrapper for macOS security scoped bookmarks (they are the most modern form of aliases)

HTH

ps: I just added support for macOS 12, will release a new version soon. I know many people (usually me) hold back a few versions of macOS.

 

[cheesestraws]

so, was it "aliases before aliases" or am I misreading it?

'Aliases' under System 7 (and later - even now!) can mean two things: a data structure that contains all the information the system needs to find a file, and a file that contains that data structure (an alias file). The aliases the Finder creates when you do Create Alias is the latter, it creates a file that contains an alias data structure.

But you can store and embed aliases in other ways too - it doesn't have to be within a dedicated alias file. Stapler kept a set of alias data structures inside its documents, so it's a kind of front-end to the Alias Manager, just as alias files are also a front-end to the Alias Manager. It didn't come before the alias manager; it used it in exactly the same way that the Finder did.

Modern OS X, mongrel that it is, retains this dual character of aliases. So @gingerbeardman's new Stapler acts as a front-end to the strange mutated descendent of the Alias Manager that exists in modern OS X, much as the old one acted as a front-end to the System 7 Alias Manager.

(I hope that answers the question you asked?)

 

[gingerbeardman]

Thanks. It even makes it more clear to me!