Ahh...you guys, I think I will take that conversation to another thread, I feel bad I hi-jacked Martin's post!
High level though, my thinking is as follows:
1) Intercept any application 'Open File' action at the OS level (so literally having some kind of a daemon that watches to see what files are being opened)
- user settings would possible filter this down to only a certain sub-set of applications
- this daemon would keep track the "most recently x opened" files, as per the user's settings
2) Show the user a dynamically maintained list, where one would simply interact with the object using the default system behavious (so rely on Associations, etc.)
- the "container" object that would allow the user to select such a file would be either a purposely built own class object, or perhaps a folder where the objects themselves would be represented as SHADOWs - idea being to re-use as much of the underlying OS structure, and therefore functionality, as possible
My goal was very similiar to what Lars' thinking is: use as little NEW code as possible, rely on existing platform / OS infrastructure to handle much of the lifting.
Thus my original question: what would be best suited to serve as that "container object"? In parallel to that, what are the current APIs that I could use to monitor the current files that are opened?
Andi, maybe as you suggested that intercepting DosFileClose would allow me to build that dynamic list of files that have been opened...that list would continue to be purned as per user settings and filters, which in theory should give us a workable solution.
Use Case
======
Let's say I only care about PDF files. I have them all over the place, my NAS box in particular...and I just do not feel like going through the full directory/path navigation each and every time I need to open one up. This to me is very real you guys...I moved our documents from the OS/2 box onto the NAS some tiem ago, we now have a single centralized DOC repo for the full house...but that requires me to do a hell of a lot more mouse clicking to just get to the file I want! lol
Anyways, Martin, I'm sorry...your post TITLE was precisely what I had in mind for some time now and the ideas just needed to "come out"...lol, but let's take this to another thread, please see =>
https://www.os2world.com/forum/index.php?action=post;board=15.0 in Programming section.