Aleph One File Typers Read Me
Woody Zenfell, III  July 1, 2003

Aleph One for Macintosh can be pretty picky about the "type codes" of the files it deals with; this can cause problems with various downloaded scenarios that may use custom type codes.  Additionally, some files created, copied, transferred, or archived by non-Macintosh-savvy tools or systems may work data-wise with Aleph One, but may have the incorrect type code and thus will not be selectable within the application.

Typical symptoms include the "Please be sure that Map, Shapes, Sounds, and Images files are properly installed" errors on starting A1, files grayed out in file-browsing dialogs, and files not showing up in the Environment Preferences.

These file typers are provided for your convenience for fixing the above problems.  They're designed to be friendly and verbose at the expense of bulk-processing efficiency; if you need to re-type dozens of files, you may wish to edit the typer you're using (each is a simple AppleScript) to make it more automatic, or seek a different file-typing utility.

The typers are reasonably sane against dropping folders, disks, applications, etc. onto them, but do not otherwise verify that you know what you're doing.  So do use some care, and only drop the appropriate types of files onto the typer.

For those keeping score, the typers use Marathon 2 file types for maximal compatibility with both A1 and older Marathon file tools.  The typers do not meddle with creator codes.


The files typers are each Copyright ©2003 Woody Zenfell, III, and each carry the following notice:

        This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
        it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
        the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
        (at your option) any later version.

        This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
        but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
        MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
        GNU General Public License for more details.

        This license is contained in the file "COPYING",
        which is included with this source code; it is available online at
        http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
