Change Notes

  Updated March 20, 1999

New in 2.0.1

• Bugs fixed:

OtherMenu is now compatible with Mac OS 8.5, so far as I know.  There may be a few quirks, for instance if you select a menu item with a submenu displayed, then the menu item does not flash.

Background updates had been working poorly, due to an attempt to allow drives to spin down.  Now, if you want your drive to spin down (particularly on a PowerBook) you should turn off background menu updates.

New in 2.0

• Enhancements:

There are now icons on the menus, provided that you use the Appearance Extension from Mac OS 8.

The OtherMenu AE Helper has been folded into OtherMenu, so now there’s only one extension.

It is possible to reorder menus without seeing unsightly prefix characters on the menu.  (They’ll be there, you just won’t see them.)

If you have the "maintain recent items" option on, then OtherMenu will verify at startup time that it can find the recent item folders, and if not it will create them.  Similarly for the volume items folder.  I hope these self-repairing features make OtherMenu a little more trouble-free.

Instead of an "Open OtherMenu Folder" alias in the OtherMenu folder, there is a new "Open OtherMenu Folder" item on the OtherMenu submenu at the end of the main menu.

There is a new option to sort menus.  This can be helpful when using a Windows NT file server, or when using the Natural Order extension.

Now, when you select a nonexistent item due to having renamed something in the Finder, you’ll still get a "file not found" error, but the menu will be rebuilt.

The “instant info” box now contains the modification time as well as the date.

When you have OtherMenu redefine a broken alias, there is a checkbox giving the option to rename the alias to match the new target.

It is easier to invoke an OtherMenu external from AppleScript, because one can now give just the name of the external rather than a full path.

There is now a OneClick library, providing OneClick buttons that run OtherMenu externals, and a QuicKeys extension for running OtherMenu externals.

Remote volumes (servers mounted through file sharing) will now get a color icon in Instant Info boxes and various externals.

Date/Time is vastly more configurable; you can now build a menu with dates and times in any format you like.  It also has better drag and drop (including the ability to duplicate clips by option-dragging), live scrolling, and an Appearance-savvy look.

The Date/Time, Paste Clips, and Memory Map externals now keep their settings in separate preferences files.  These preference files are in a folder “OtherMenu External Preferences” inside the Preferences folder.

Delete... is now capable of deleting a nonempty folder, after suitable warnings.

Empty Trash offers to launch the Finder if it’s not already running.

File Info... has an Appearance-savvy look.

Desktop Info, Find... , Memory Info,  and Put Away... have an Appearance-savvy look and live scrolling.

The Clipboard Magician-based externals, Hard to Soft Wrap and Quote, now require the shift and option keys to bring up the settings dialog.  This is to fix the conflict with my use of the option key to open a file with the front application.

Paste Clips has better drag and drop (including the ability to duplicate clips by option-dragging), live scrolling, and an Appearance-savvy look.

Quit Finder offers to launch the Finder instead if Finder is not running.  It also gives a warning if QuicKeys is present, because quitting the Finder (by any means) in the presence of QuicKeys seems to cause crashes.

Speaker Volume uses a newer Sound Manager API.

Volume Info has a new column showing volume capacity.  It was also updated with live scrolling and an Appearance-savvy look.

• Bugs fixed:

Fixed a conflict with the “sticky menus” feature of Mac OS 8, which caused the menu not to drop sometimes.  The fix was to remove some code I had introduced to work around a conflict with a beta version of Netscape, and that workaround is apparently no longer needed.

If you open a menu in “sticky menus” mode and let the cursor rest on a menu item without clicking the mouse, then after about 15 seconds the menu gives up and goes away.  In normal menus, this does not select an item, but in OtherMenu it did.

Fixed a problem running compiled AppleScripts in the Finder.

Fixed an incompatibility with 4th Dimension version 6.

If you used a language kit with Mac OS 8, then using a directory dialog (e.g. in the File Info external) in the Finder appeared to hang.  This was not my bug, in fact you could run into it using nothing but Apple software.  However, I added a workaround for this bug.

Aliases to certain folders, such as “Fonts” and “Extensions (Disabled)”, were not showing submenus.

Previous versions failed to add a custom icon to a newly-created OtherMenu Folder when running under Mac OS 8.

Control panel applications (file type 'APPC') now appear in Recent Applications rather than Recent Documents.

The feature of opening a document with the front application is now invoked only when the option key is the only modifier key pressed.  Previously it happened when you pressed the option key plus other modifier keys, which gave too many chances for unwanted behavior.

Fixed a conflict with Web Quick.  This isn’t exactly a bug fix, more like a workaround for Web Quick’s weird patch.

Paste Clips didn’t work with AOL 3.0, although I thought I had fixed that before.

Put Away didn’t always succeed in putting away volumes, such as disk images.

The “instant info” box sometimes had a partly gray background under Mac OS 8.  Now the background is a uniform pale yellow.

New in 1.8.4

• Enhancements:

When you select a document from the menu while holding the option key, OtherMenu will now try to open the document with the foreground application, rather than the application that created the document.

When you select an AppleScript application from the menu while holding the shift key, OtherMenu will open the application in the Script Editor.

Submenus representing folders on remote file servers will now be sorted in alphabetic order.  This is not necessary with AppleShare servers, which automatically list files in a reasonable order, but I understand it is necessary with Windows NT servers.

Memory Map now uses a different format when displaying all locked temporary memory:  It shows b after each size less than 1K, rather than rounding all sizes to the next K.  Also, the “free” column is blank for items where it doesn’t make sense.

Paste Clips has been revised for compatibility with AOL 3.0.

• Bugs fixed:

Fixed a conflict with an alpha version of Harmony.  The symptom was that if OtherMenu had to create a new OtherMenu Folder, it would not be able to locate the folder until after a restart.  And if you don’t know what Harmony is, I’m not allowed to tell you.

Fixed a conflict with AutoMenus Pro.

Fixed a conflict with Microsoft Internet Explorer 2.0b3.

New in 1.8.3

• Enhancements:

Menu items can be made to appear only in a certain application.  A new external “Specialize” lets you change a menu item to an application-specific item, or back to a general item.

A new external “KeyQuencer Macros” shows a submenu of macros defined in KeyQuencer, so that you can run them by name.  (Requires KeyQuencer 1.2.2 or later.)

Memory Map now shows different types of items in different colors.  It also no longer requires you to show all locked temporary memory in order to observe memory fragmentation caused by temporary memory.  Now you may sometimes see two adjacent Free blocks if you have not chosen to display all locked temporary memory.

Paste Clips can handle larger clips and longer labels.  Also, it has an “Import” button for easier updating.

The Find external now finds folders as well as files when searching by name.  I also improved the logic of which button is the default button, and improved the responsiveness to cancelling a search.

Move to Trash can now operate when the Finder is not running.

Items moved to the trash with QuickTrash can now be “put away” back out of the trash.

OtherMenu externals will no longer be added to the Recent Documents menu.

The upper limit on the maximum number of items in a recent items submenu has been increased from 50 to 100.  (You set the actual maximum in the preferences dialog.)

• Bugs fixed:

Memory Map failed to find locked temporary memory under the Modern Memory Manager.

Submenu-generating externals failed to work in Netscape 2.0b1.

Documents were not getting added to the Recent Documents submenu if the application was not already running when the document was launched.

Find sometimes produced a divide-by-zero error when searching remote volumes.

Move/Rename gave a silly warning if you selected a file that was locked.

New in 1.8.2

• Enhancements:

Items in the Shutdown Items folder now will not be placed in the recent items menus.

• Bugs fixed:

Fixed a conflict with System 7.5.2.

Fixed a bug in the Find external that made it hang if you searched in data on more than one volume.

Made the Find external give up a tiny bit of time to background applications while searching.

Items opened with the Find external can now appear as recent items.

New in 1.8.1

• Enhancements:

New Find external.  This is the first external that is accelerated for PowerPC.

An alias to a folder now has the text styles assigned to both aliases and folders.

• Bugs fixed:

I believe I have fixed a conflict with the THINK C debugger.  I was never able to duplicate the problem on my own Macs, but finally got access to a IIci on which the conflict occurred.

A 3-way conflict with Glidel and Greg’s Buttons.

Added the patcher to work around the conflict with General Controls.  This issue is discussed in more detail elsewhere in the manual.

Applications that took a long time to launch were sometimes not being recorded as recent applications.

If you had a non-Roman script system install, even if you were not using it, the file paths in “Instant Info” boxes were being broken into lines in unpleasant ways.

When scripting an external, there was an improper error message if you did not specify a menu item number.

New in 1.8

• Enhancements:

Submenu-generating externals such as Monitor Depth can now be run by AppleScript.

In the Binhex external, you can now set a preference for the file creator type of the binhex file.  The default is ‘R*ch’, the signature of BBEdit.  (I thought I had this done in version 1.7.4, but I was wrong.)

Fattened another patch, on a routine that QuickDraw GX makes native.

If OtherMenu is too old, or used on a System version more recent that the one it was developed with, it will issue a one-time warning that you might want to look for an update.

• Bugs fixed:

A memory-management bug sometimes caused a crash when you tried to use a submenu-generating external.

A memory-management bug in Apple’s software occasionally made a submenu fail to appear or appear as a huge blank rectangle.  I worked around it.

When you tried to pull down the menu from within 4th Dimension, you got an “Out of stack memory” message.

If you opened a stationery document with the Open external, and the foreground application was not stationery-aware, you got a warning that the stationery document itself would be opened and modified.  Since the application that would actually open the file probably was stationery-aware, this warning was inappropriate.

New in 1.7.4

• Bugs fixed:

Fixed a conflict with TypeTamer™ that prevented TypeTamer’s “insert special character” feature from working.

In the Binhex and Stuff externals, clicking OK in the “Replace existing <file>?” dialog actually does replace the existing file.  Previously the new file was created with a different name.

New in 1.7.3

• Enhancements:

The Windows external now can be invoked with the option key in order to use a more forceful method of switching windows.  This can be helpful when a buggy application won’t let you dismiss a dialog. 

New Binhex external.  This requires the StuffIt Engine from Aladdin.

Consolidated documents into a manual reader application.

• Bugs fixed:

The instant info box was sometimes failing to show the version number if the application in the foreground was low on memory.  Now system memory is used, temporarily, to make the info box.

The recent items code was failing to reset the current resource file.  I detected this by an obscure cosmetic effect, but it could have had more serious effects in some applications.

The gray backgrounds in the preferences and manual dialogs were failing to appear on some Macs.

New in 1.7.2

• Bugs fixed:

More precautions to avoid crashing when you rebuild the desktop.

The Stuff and Unstuff externals now make sure you have a sufficiently recent version of the StuffIt Engine.

New in 1.7.1

• Enhancements:

New Stuff and Unstuff externals.  These require that the StuffIt Engine be installed on your Mac.

• Bugs fixed:

Due to a bug in Finder, rebuilding a desktop under System 7.5 sometimes caused a crash when OtherMenu AE Helper was installed.  I have now worked around the problem.

Script properties were failing to persist when you used OtherMenu to run compiled AppleScript files.

Increased the memory partition of OtherMenu AE Helper by 2K.  Although I never saw it on my Mac, I had a report of OtherMenu AE Helper sometimes refusing to quit, and holding up the restart or shutdown process.  That may have been caused by a memory shortage.

New in 1.7

• Enhancements:

“Instant Info” feature: While mousing through the menu, you can press and hold a certain key of your choice to see a window showing some information about the file: its icon, type, creator, modification date, and path.  This is particularly useful for “recent items”, since you may have several recent items with the same name.

Improved caching scheme, and added option to update the main menu and first level of submenus in the background.  You may want to turn this feature off if you have a hard disk that spins down when inactive, but I have made special provisions to allow a PowerBook’s disk to spin down.

New “Finder Folders” external, for access to folders that are open in the Finder.  Unlike any previous externals, this creates a hierarchical submenu.  Requires a scriptable Finder, as is included in System 7.5.

Applications in the Startup Items folder will not be recorded as Recent Applications.

Occasional shareware reminders, until you check the “I paid” checkbox.

• Bugs fixed:

The New Folder external was mostly useful for creating a folder within a directory dialog box that did not have a New Folder button.  However, this involved presenting a new directory dialog on top of the first one, which was somewhat conflict-prone.  So, I redesigned the New Folder external to be more like the New Folder button.  That is, it only presents a small dialog box in which you type a folder name, rather than presenting a full directory dialog box.

The Windows external was not compatible with the floating window schemes used by some applications, and in particular did not work with the Japanese script system.  It has now been rewritten to be more compatible.

The menu looked weird in applications that used fractional widths, depending on your chosen menu font.

New in 1.6.1

• Enhancements:

The preferences dialog shows the version number, for easy reference.

Any menu item you select will now flash.  Previously items with submenus did not flash.

• Bugs fixed:

It was possible for a submenu selection to be ignored if you quickly moved the cursor up into the menu bar after making the selection.

The recent items feature was causing spurious “Please insert disk” alerts.  If this happened to you, you probably didn’t realize it was OtherMenu’s fault.
 
Another programmer pointed out that my patches to MountVol and UnmountVol were not preserving register A0, and thus might conflict with other extensions that patch the same traps.

Under unusual circumstances, the recent items feature could cause unexpected AppleShare dialogs.

New in 1.6

• Enhancements:

Instead of one folder for recent items, you can now have recent applications, recent documents, and recent folders in three separate folders.  If OtherMenu fails to find the OtherMenu Folder, so that it creates a new OtherMenu Folder, it will also create these three subfolders.

OtherMenu is more thorough about recording recent items.  In particular, files opened by double-clicking in the Finder, or by Super Boomerang’s direct-open feature, will appear as recent documents.  When you open a file using a directory dialog, the folder containing that file will be added to the recent folders folder.

No longer must you type folder names or path names in the preferences dialog.  Now the volume items folder and the three recent item folders are specified using “Set Folder” buttons, each of which displays a directory selection dialog.  Furthermore, these folders are now recorded using aliases, so you should be able to rename them without making OtherMenu lose track of them.

The last item in the main menu is now “OtherMenu”, and has a submenu containing “Show Manual”, “Preferences”, and “Memory Usage”.  The former externals for Preferences and Memory Usage are now obsolete.

It is possible to tell OtherMenu to open externals using AppleScript.

OtherMenu can now launch background-only applications of type ‘appe’, such as OtherMenu AE Helper and KQ AppleEvents.

• Bugs fixed:

If you had “Maintain volume items” turned on but the options to delete volume items for unmounted volume items turned off, then volume items accumulated until you had 10 of them for each actual volume.

MFS (single-sided) diskettes caused problems in the volume items feature.

Under certain circumstances, clicking on the menu bar within QuickAlias or QuickTrash just caused a beep, making it impossible to use these externals.  (An example of such circumstances was the “Configure StorageSets” window in Retrospect.)

Icon highlighting in “Put Away” was not correct.

Text files were being opened using the Finder even if the creating application was already open.

A change in memory usage when creating alias files fixed a conflict with THINK Debugger for at least one user.

Under Arabic and Hebrew versions of the system software, you could not display both English and non-English file names readably in the menu at the same time.

Apple DocViewer crashed when printing to a PostScript file.  This was actually a DocViewer bug, but I worked around it.

If some extension brought up a dialog during the startup process, OtherMenu tried to do its volume scanning too early, causing a crash.

The Copy File external displayed the file size and disk space incorrectly under some non-U.S. systems.

Date/Time showed dimmed lines in the submenu if you chose a prefix beginning with a hyphen.

Desktop Info allowed icons to be selected, for no purpose.

New in 1.5.2

• Bugs fixed:

A bug that caused a crash when switching to the fonts section of the preferences dialog.

A bug that sometimes (but not on my Mac) caused a crash when saving preferences.

New in 1.5.1

• Bugs fixed:

A bug that could sometimes cause a crash when opening or closing the preferences dialog.

New in 1.5

• Enhancements:

Added the ability to run a KeyQuencer macro file.

The icon-finding code (used to make aliases and by the File Info, Put Away, and Volume Info externals) has been improved to handle the desktop files on diskettes.  Do not use your old versions of these externals with the new OtherMenu, it will probably crash!

The submenu disappearance delay is back.  I guess it does do something.  Note: if you have turned on the submenu appearance delay, then the disappearance delay will probably be set to an inappropriate value, like 0.  I suggest you set it to something like 100.

Updated the Clip Info external to count words and lines if there is text on the clipboard.

When OtherMenu creates an OtherMenu Folder, it now gives a custom icon to the folder.  Also, it creates a special alias to itself, called “Open OtherMenu Folder”.  This alias is a little nicer than the external that it replaces, because it can be used inside a directory dialog.

The little arrow controls in the preferences panel now accelerate when you keep the mouse pressed on them.

Added a new external that opens the preferences dialog.  You can still use the old way of shift-selecting “About OtherMenu...”, this is just an alternative.

Now when you select an alias in QuickAlias, the new alias points to the target of the selected alias, rather than pointing to the selected alias.  Granted this is not consistent with QuickTrash, in which selecting an alias trashes the alias rather than its target.  But I think this way is likely to do what you want more often.

The Recent Items folders now sees all applications (except the Finder and background-only applications) whether or not you launched them with OtherMenu.

In Date/Time, you can now specify prefix strings as well as suffix strings.

I have changed the volume alias mechanism so that if you have two volumes of the same name, they will each get an alias in the menu.  (But if you have two volumes with the same name and  the same creation date, OtherMenu will still get confused.)

Copy File uses more bullet-proof code developed by Apple.  In particular it should be more efficient when copying from a remote server to elsewhere on the server.

In external names, I now use three periods instead of an ellipsis character.  This looks better under KanjiTalk, and looks the same under most other circumstances.

• Bugs fixed:

Running AppleScript files crashed under some circumstances.

Make Alias As warned you that you would not be able to save changes if you selected a file on a locked disk.

Some hard disk aliases were created with the wrong file type.

Using the option key to add a folder to the Recent Items folder without opening it sometimes caused a bogus error message.

Put Away was sometimes wrong about whether a disk was ejectable.

The Temporary Items folder showed up on the menu, even that folder is invisible in the Finder and in directory dialogs.

When you had ejected (but not unmounted) diskettes, OtherMenu sometimes caused unnecessary “Please insert <disk>” alerts.

New in 1.4.1

•  Can now execute compiled AppleScript files.

•  Fixed a minor conflict with Virex.  Previously, a certain combination of Virex settings caused OtherMenu to fail to put new volumes in the menu.

•  Fixed a bug in which the volume name in a directory dialog failed to change if you used OtherMenu to switch to a folder on a different volume.

•  Fixed a bug that prevented you from choosing a font whose name had more than 31 characters.

•  Made it possible (not to say easy) to run OtherMenu externals using QuicKeys 3.0.

•  Updated Paste Clips external to allow clips up to 1K.

•  Patched for compatibility with “SimpleText Color Menu”.

New in 1.4

• Settings are now stored in an OtherMenu Preferences file.

• Options to set the text style of menu items according to whether they are folders, aliases, or other files.

• Provided some “fat patches” so that OtherMenu will not slow down PowerMacs.

• New QuickAlias external, for creation of multiple aliases in one folder without use of directory dialogs.

• New QuickTrash external, for trashing multiple files or folders.

• New Quote external, for BBS quoting or hard-wrapping of text on the clipboard.

• File Info external now edits application memory sizes.

• Modified online documentation reader to save text styles when you click “Save as TeachText”, since TeachText is being replaced by SimpleText.