Swing Hacks

Make Mac Applications Behave Normally #81

Chapter 11, Native Integration and Packaging

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413

HACK

actually does have some other arguments. For example, -t will force the file

to be opened in TextEdit, and

-f will make open read from standard input

rather than a file.

The most useful extra argument is probably

-a

, which lets you force the file

to be opened in a particular program rather than just using the default. For

example, if you wanted to open a text file in Microsoft Word instead of the

default text editor, you could do something like this:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {

Runtime rt = Runtime.getRuntime( );

String[] cmd = {

"open",

"-a",

"Microsoft Word",

"mynotes.txt"

};

rt.exec(cmd);

}

Notice you have to use an array instead of a single string

because Microsoft Word has a space in it. If you don’t do

that, the program will fail with a bus error.

open is a simple but very powerful program because it gives you easy access

to launching programs and files without knowing the user’s settings. The

default applications will be used for each file type, including URLs. You

don’t have to hardcode this information into your program, thus creating a

better experience for your user.

To learn more about the open command, you can type man

open

into a terminal window.

H A C K

#81

Make Mac Applications Behave Normally Hack #81

Setting a few system properties will make your application seem ...