XPost: alt.windows7.general   
   From: address@is.invalid   
      
   J. P. ,   
      
   >>Do you know that you're the first one who actually adresses my question ?   
   >>:-)   
   >   
   > I think I'm quite good at that (certainly at seeing when people are   
   > answering not quite the question that was asked, which doesn't make me   
   > popular).   
      
   I think I make myself unpopulair by putting effort into isolating the   
   problem first and than formulating an exact question to it.  IOW, I'm not   
   giving the people who respond a lot of leeway in their answers ...   
      
   And me being able to point out the downsides of offered work-arounds does   
   not help either...   
      
   >>problems like ... what ?   
   >   
   > Well, I'd have thought - since it is _capable_ of writing, that it might   
   > "lock" the file, preventing anything else writing to it. But obviously   
   > that's _not_ happening.   
      
   :-)  I /think/ I might have noticed the document-generating program throwing   
   an error because it could not open the write-locked file.   
      
   Than again, its hard to know how knowledgable the asker is, and he /could/   
   just be a PEBKAC or ID:10T, not knowing the front from its desktops back.   
   :-|   
      
   > Yes. Ideally, you want a true viewer - read-only - for the type of file in   
   > question (.rtf?).   
      
   Nope.  I have zero problems with using a full-fledged editor.  They come   
   with a few pro's that could be usefull*, even in this case.   
      
   * like editing/annotating and copy-pasting a few paragraphs elsewhere.   
      
   If I would wanted to have a read-only "viewer" than my question would have   
   been exactly that.  Likely asking if wordpad has a commandline switch for   
   it.   
      
   > I don't suppose the prog. that's creating the file has its own viewer for   
   > them, that you until now haven't been aware of?   
      
   Nope, it doesn't have its own one.  Why should it? Its output is just a   
   document that can be read by pretty-much every editor there is.  Its like   
   asking if the DIR command has its own viewer. :-)   
      
   > (What _is_ that prog.?)   
      
   You know curiosity killed the kat, right ? :-)   
      
   Its not a commonly known program, which is why me mentioning it/its purpose   
   would not help you in the slightest.   It takes information, formats it and   
   than writes it into the document I mentioned.  If you want you can compare   
   it to "DIR > {some file}".   
      
   And yes, that (DIR > file) could be another situation in which I could run   
   into wordpads ignoring of the new files contents ...   
      
   Copying the document from somewhere else (like a thumbdrive) would be   
   another.   
      
   Or, in other words: The answer to the question I asked would be applicable   
   to more situations than the one I described.   
      
   > OK, so _you_ instigate the opening (in this case by double-clicking).   
      
   Yes.  And I said so in my initial post.   
      
   > It won't help with the problem, but I'm just curious: what is the reason   
   > you're looking at this document?   
      
   Would you believe me if I said it was to pass the time ?  No ?  Than I won't   
   say it. :-)   
      
   > Obviously to see what's changed, but how big is the document - about a   
   > (WordPad) windowful?   
      
   That depends on the source.  But normally its tens of screens full.   
      
   > What sort of change does the generating prog. usually make?   
      
   That also depends on the source.  Often the changes are minor, but sometimes   
   they are major.   
      
   >>And thats just *begging* me to continue using the old while thinking its   
   >>the new data - with the non-zero chance that I overwrite the new data with   
   >>the (edited) old data.   
   >   
   > Definitely a read-only viewer needed -   
      
   Not if wordpad itself has the solution for what I described build-in - and   
   I'm still in the discovery phase in that regard.   
      
   If it doesn't than I will switch my focus to finding either work-arounds or   
   perhaps such a reader.   
      
   Though in that case I might just take a riched20 component, wrap it in a   
   dialog and be done with it.  Yep, I'm a (hobby) programmer. :-)   
      
   > ideally, one without the behaviour of WordPad!   
      
   Why ?  Thats throwing the baby away with the bathwater ...   
      
   > (Or do you _want_ to actually _edit_ the file?)   
      
   Normally, no.  But at times I have had the need for it.   
      
   > I'm pretty sure there _are_ other .rtf editors (not sure about viewers)   
   > around, but I don't know if they all have the same (won't open new copy)   
   > behaviour of WordPad.   
      
   As earlier mentioned, I will start to consider other options* /after/ I have   
   concluded my current question.  Yes, I'm odd like that. Sorry. :-)   
      
   * even though I already went thru inventorizing a few work-arounds/hacks   
   before posting my question, taskkill being one of them.   
      
   Regards,   
   Rudy Wieser   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)