Schwaighofer Clemens <gul### [at] gullevekorg> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> has anyboday already tried to run Povray 3.6 in Tiger? I tried to start
> it, but nothing happens at all.
>
> I also tried MegaPOV and that starts fine.
> lg, Clemens

Here's the problem...sometime after upgrading to Tiger 10.4, then 10.4.1 and
finally 10.4.2 I began to get Finder message's when I try to add version
numbers (or any text that contains a period, '.') to a file or folder's
name, which I do often to help me keep track of updates.  The message goes
something like "Are you sure you want to add the extension ".<some text>?".

So, I finally figured out that the Finder did not like to have more than one
'.' in a file name and whould thus always produce the message.  Now for
folders this was just an annoyance but did not cause any problems.  Native
applications in OS X (not Carbon versions) ARE folders of a special kind
whch have the extention '.app' at the end of thier name, which is usually
hidden, as you can verify by doing a "Get Info..." on them.

I also noticed that in the Finder's preferences the option to "Show all file
extensions" option was gone.  It was there in Panther.  Taking the problem
at hand here with POVray 3.6, as an example, which I also experienced on
one Mac but not another  (generic icon, the app's alias had the program
"manopen"'s icon on it, and doubling-click either brought up the Script
Editor with know window...):

   - After unpacking the .sit package, opening the .dmg image, you see the
      alias is named:
          POV-Ray Mac 3.6
      as well as the actual Carbon app in the folder "POV-Ray Mac 3.6
      Folder) to which it points.
   - When I did a "Get Info..." on the actual app, the "Hide Extension"
      checkbox enabled, but unchecked.
      This should NOT be the case for a Carbon app. It should be unchecked
      AND disabled (grayed-out).
   - So I surpmised that somehow the Finder thought this was a OS X app with
      the extension ".6" instead
      of ".app" as I verified by adding .app to the name so it would read:
          POV-Ray Mac 3.6.app
      However, upon closing the "Get Info..." window, it showed up in the
      Finder  as:
          POV-Ray Mac 3.app.6
    - I  went back to the "Get Info..." window and removed everything at the
      end of the name that contained '.''s:
          POV-Ray Mac
    - The progeam's icon now showed up and it launched fine.

This Finder behavior was definitely not right.  I have another Mac that I
just did a fresh Tiger install on, after reformatting the disk, then went
straight to 10.4.2 with the Combo updater which I downloaded.
The problem did not occur for POV Ray and I was not getting the Finder
messages when I added names with '.''s in them to Folders or files.

So, somewhere in the previous upgrade process something got corrupted.  You
might try trashing your ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist file
and rebooot to see if the problem goes away.  If not you might want to do a
Archive & Install of Tiger, then download the 10.4.2 Combo updater and use
it.

Mark

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myannuzzi wrote:
> Schwaighofer Clemens <gul### [at] gullevekorg> wrote:
> 
>>Hi,
>>
>>has anyboday already tried to run Povray 3.6 in Tiger? I tried to start
>>it, but nothing happens at all.
>>
>>I also tried MegaPOV and that starts fine.
>>lg, Clemens
> 
> 
> Here's the problem...sometime after upgrading to Tiger 10.4, then 10.4.1 and
> finally 10.4.2 I began to get Finder message's when I try to add version
> numbers (or any text that contains a period, '.') to a file or folder's
> name, which I do often to help me keep track of updates.  The message goes
> something like "Are you sure you want to add the extension ".<some text>?".
> 
> So, I finally figured out that the Finder did not like to have more than one
> '.' in a file name and whould thus always produce the message.  Now for
> folders this was just an annoyance but did not cause any problems.  Native
> applications in OS X (not Carbon versions) ARE folders of a special kind
> whch have the extention '.app' at the end of thier name, which is usually
> hidden, as you can verify by doing a "Get Info..." on them.
> 
> I also noticed that in the Finder's preferences the option to "Show all file
> extensions" option was gone.  It was there in Panther.  Taking the problem
> at hand here with POVray 3.6, as an example, which I also experienced on
> one Mac but not another  (generic icon, the app's alias had the program
> "manopen"'s icon on it, and doubling-click either brought up the Script
> Editor with know window...):
> 
>    - After unpacking the .sit package, opening the .dmg image, you see the
>       alias is named:
>           POV-Ray Mac 3.6
>       as well as the actual Carbon app in the folder "POV-Ray Mac 3.6
>       Folder) to which it points.
>    - When I did a "Get Info..." on the actual app, the "Hide Extension"
>       checkbox enabled, but unchecked.
>       This should NOT be the case for a Carbon app. It should be unchecked
>       AND disabled (grayed-out).
>    - So I surpmised that somehow the Finder thought this was a OS X app with
>       the extension ".6" instead
>       of ".app" as I verified by adding .app to the name so it would read:
>           POV-Ray Mac 3.6.app
>       However, upon closing the "Get Info..." window, it showed up in the
>       Finder  as:
>           POV-Ray Mac 3.app.6
>     - I  went back to the "Get Info..." window and removed everything at the
>       end of the name that contained '.''s:
>           POV-Ray Mac
>     - The progeam's icon now showed up and it launched fine.
> 
> This Finder behavior was definitely not right.  I have another Mac that I
> just did a fresh Tiger install on, after reformatting the disk, then went
> straight to 10.4.2 with the Combo updater which I downloaded.
> The problem did not occur for POV Ray and I was not getting the Finder
> messages when I added names with '.''s in them to Folders or files.
> 
> So, somewhere in the previous upgrade process something got corrupted.  You
> might try trashing your ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist file
> and rebooot to see if the problem goes away.  If not you might want to do a
> Archive & Install of Tiger, then download the 10.4.2 Combo updater and use
> it.

You may also file a bug report with Apple about the Finder behavior which is 
certainly incorrect as a "." is a legal characater anywhere and in any 
number in any file or application name.

	Thorsten

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