I have complained before about BBEdit's inability to handle files with mixed line ends and I had pretty much resigned myself to the truth of the axiom that "it never happens". Well, it does to me but perhaps I'm the only one who deals with text strings from instruments that still think they're talking to a teletype machine.
Let me tell a story. Before setting off to visit relatives for a month of travel I placed a copy of the text file that I regularly use for keeping notes about family and friends, addresses, email coordinates, birthdays and the like onto the Mac Pismo that would go with us. The Pismo belongs to the lady of the house and runs OS 10.4 but she is not a BBEdit user. My text file is maintained on this Mac 8500 running OS 9.1 where I really enjoy the Mac look and feel and the capabilities of MPW. In that environment Mac line ends prevail though MPW understands UNIX line ends and displays them properly. While travelling I felt the need to make some additions and corrections to the file. TextEdit?? Naah. I do not want RTF. X-code not installed. So I downloaded an update to BBEdit 8.5 which I own and run on OS 10.3.9 but I didn't bother to enter a license number. It was going to work for 30 days anyway. I also made no changes to the default preferences. BBEdiit opened my file on the Pismo and allowed me to edit it which I did at several stops. I added lines in a few hundred places which I terminated by pressing the return key with no objection by BBEdit. I saved and backed up to a thumb drive. I am now at home and I have just copied the modified file from the Pismo to my OS10.3.9 G4. I change permissions to allow writing and open in the recently updated BBEdit 8.5.2. . . . My return characters have disappeared with long lines appearing in the window. The older areas of the file appear OK and BBEdit says the file uses Mac line ends. Having seen those things before in instrumentation files I was smart enough not to save and overwrite. Examining the files with some C code I prepared long ago I find some 300 UNIX line ends and 1000 or so Mac Line ends. Apparently the work with BBEdit while travelling was installing UNIX ends in response to my return keystrokes. This time it was BBEdit itself that created the mixed line ends that are axiomatically impossible! My C code is capable of changing all line ends to Mac style and I recovered my work. But WHY does Bare Bones add an extraneous epidermis to my file? It's supposed to be simple and helpful. I want BBEdit to have the option of treating all line ends the same within a file. Show them all as ends in a display window and provide an option to write out what ever is there into the underlying file. I am convinced that I am not the only user with the problem. Am I wrong? Please speak up if it bothers you too. *** And one other thing. The resource fork for the file got lost. When copied to the Pismo, using Finder drags, it was type TEXT and creator 'MPS '. When dragged back the type and creator were missing and the resource fork was gone. That's probably an OS neXt thing associated with its apparent desire to be more like Windoze. I would have understood a change of creator to R*ch. -- --> From the U S of A, the only socialist country that refuses to admit it. <-- -- ------------------------------------------------------------------ Have a feature request? Not sure the software's working correctly? If so, please send mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, not to the list. List FAQ: <http://www.barebones.com/support/lists/bbedit_talk.shtml> List archives: <http://www.listsearch.com/BBEditTalk.lasso> To unsubscribe, send mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
