Can't open many files using "Open..." dialog

[Ken L]

Greeting folks, new BBEdit user here. Not sure if this is a BBEdit or a Mac OS question, but since I don't see this issue with other applications on my Macbook figured I would start here. 

I'm running BBEdit "version 13.5.4 (415086, 64-bit Intel, sandboxed)", still in 30 day evaluation. Mac OS is Big Sur 11.2.1. Apologies in advance if this has been covered elsewhere; a search in this group didn't show any obvious similar problems. 

Summary of issue is that when I try to use the "Open..." dialog, most of my text source files (I'm a Perl programmer usually) show up in the window as greyed out. This is true of files in my local Git directories, as well as files in my Documents or local user directories which I know are Perl source files (or other text files). The document types ("kind") vary; some are just shown as "Document", others are shown as "kind" being my other editor (Slickedit). 

On the other hand, if I open a separate Finder window and navigate to the files, I can drag them to the BBEdit window and edit them fine. Thereafter (after I save it), the file will show up as open-able in the Open.. dialog. I mucked a bit with Privacy/Security settings. BBEdit has full disk access, etc. Changing setting on the Mac didn't seem to affect the behavior. Any help or insight is appreciated. 

Cheers,

Ken

[Rich Siegel]

On 16 Feb 2021, at 10:55, Ken L wrote:

> Summary of issue is that when I try to use the "Open..." dialog, most
> of my
> text source files (I'm a Perl programmer usually) show up in the
> window as
> greyed out.

They may show that way; but you can still click on them or double-click
to open. The Open panel in macOS is weird and sometimes slow to catch
up. There's nothing particularly wrong; that's just how it is.

R.

--
Rich Siegel Bare Bones Software, Inc.
<sie...@barebones.com> <https://www.barebones.com/>

Someday I'll look back on all this and laugh... until they sedate me.

[Ken L]

Thanks for the response Rich.  Unfortunately that is not the case.  The "greyed out" files don't even highlight when clicked (or double-clicked).  Nothing happens, they are not accessible from that file dialog.

Ken

[Ken L]

Actually, I just found an interesting (though cumbersome) workaround:

- Right click on the greyed file name

- Select "Quick Look"

- Close the "Quick Look" window

- Now the file will be highlighted and you can hit "open" (or double click).

And then if one edits the file and  re-saves it from BBEdit, it is magically now accessible from the  Open...  dialog.

Interesting...

Ken

[Peace Keeper]

>>Have you had a look on the open options ? 

[eu...@gmx.de]

Hi Rich,

I can’t reproduce the issue Ken L reported.
In my environment (MacBook Pro Mid 2010, Patched macOS Mojave, BBEdit 13.5.5) everything works fine, even when I assign the .pl files are to another editor than BBEdit in the Finder.

Maybe there’s something weird in his special environment?

Ulrich

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[Ken L]

Thanks for everyone's input on this.  Not sure I have a "special" environment, but I do tend not to use the .pl extension on my Perl source files (the target environments don't need it).  And as I mentioned to Rich separately, I do have several file extensions that I use just for my stuff (I wouldn't expect MacOS to recognize them).  

I do notice that certain file types (.txt, .pl, .zip) are consistently recognized in the the open... dialog.  Some seem hit or miss (like .log), and others (.tgz, image files, no file extension) are not.  Interestingly, Word docs (docx) are recognized  ...

In any case,  based on several recommendations, I did go in to the options in the dialog and told it to show hidden files.  After that, I can left-click and open the files as usual (although they still show faded out).  That's a sufficient workaround for me.

Thanks again, cheers.

Ken

[Patrick Woolsey]

On 2/16/21 at 2:49 PM, sirb...@gmail.com (Ken L) wrote:

>Thanks for everyone's input on this. Not sure I have a
>"special" environment, but I do tend not to use the .pl
>extension on my Perl source files (the target environments
>don't need it).

In general, as long as the target environment allows your Perl
files to have suffixes, you're better off with them than
without. :-)

>And as I mentioned to Rich separately, I do have several file extensions
>that I use just for my stuff (I wouldn't expect MacOS to
>recognize them).

Though there is no convenient way to make the OS recognize
custom extensions, you can train BBEdit to do so by either:

(a) adding custom extension mappings in the Languages prefs pane
(for files whose contents have a known language type, such as
"Markdown") or

(b) adding extensions to the list in the Text Files prefs pane
(for files which contain plain, unstructured text).

>I do notice that certain file types (.txt, .pl, .zip) are
>consistently recognized in the the open... dialog.

That's because either BBEdit, the OS, or both, already "know"
that such files are either text files or that BBEdit can
otherwise handle their contents (e.g. a Zip archive).

>Some seem hit or miss (like .log), and others (.tgz, image files, no file
>extension) are not.

These are files whose contents BBEdit and/or the OS either do
not recognize (e.g. extensionless files with no internal
directives), or do recognize but also know they aren't editable
text (e.g. image files :-).

>Interestingly, Word docs (docx) are recognized ...

That's because they're fundamentally just Zip archives with
suitably structured contents. :-)


Regards

Patrick Woolsey
==
Bare Bones Software, Inc. <https://www.barebones.com/>