Who can make a file appear in the Office System desktop UI?

[stepleton]

I have a generic question that seems abstract but important: in the Office System, is the Desktop Manager the only thing that can make a file appear somewhere in the desktop user interface, with an icon associated with a particular program? (And the only way it will do that is if you tear off a piece of stationery or if you duplicate a file.)

(I guess the answer is no: when you install a new tool, that also sets up a new icon for the tool and for its stationery if it uses stationery. But that doesn't happen while the Office System is running.)

[AlexTheCat123]

Yeah, I believe the Desktop Manager is the only thing that can do this under stock LOS. I'm sure you could write a program that runs under LOS and modifies the catalog file in real-time to make things appear and disappear, but that's not a bare LOS install anymore. And that may not even work anyway if the Desktop Manager keeps the catalog open at all times (preventing our program from opening it) instead of only opening it when necessary.

[stepleton]

Hmm, that's quite a restriction! I guess one workaround might be to try and write a device driver for a kind of virtual disk. A program could make a new file appear on a volume that gets mounted, and then you can copy the file onto a real drive.

[AlexTheCat123]

That could be interesting! I'm sure there's a way to do it with enough ingenuity, even if it's not immediately obvious.