[OS X Emacs] Emacs.app doesn't do aliases...

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 24.12.2007 um 21:15 schrieb Joe Davison:

>    Well, isn't that interesting!   That did work, for both  
> aliases.  -- I suppose "open" in those cases defaults to "-a this  
> app", effectively.

No, -a expects the name of an application. And then that of a file to  
pass it to the application. (Check open's man page!)

Open is a generic command. Applied on a directory it opens it in  
Finder, applied on an application bundle (another kind of directory)  
it launches the application. When applied on a file it checks a  
service that tells what kind it is (UTI, Universal Type Identifier,  
from Tiger on) and from this an application is chosen, either one  
that claims it handle this type or on that has been set to handle it  
(Launch Service).

It's like the command-click in Finder, then choose Open with and you  
(might) see a large set of candidates. Since open is Mac OS X  
intrinsic it can work with file aliases. (There is also a launch  
application, having saved its name from the NeXT.)

--
Greetings

   Pete

Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want.