The Mac OS 8 SimpleText-Clippings bug: explained and a work-around

Last time, I explained how you would get a memory error after selecting "Copy" for a clippings file created from a SimpleText document in Mac OS 8. Here are more details about what is happening and what you can do to work-around the bug until Apple fixes it:

a. The problem only occurs if you use the version of SimpleText (version 1.4) that ships with Mac OS 8 and only if you use it while running Mac OS 8. So one simple way to avoid this problem in Mac OS 8 is to revert back to a prior version of SimpleText (such as the version 1.3.3 that shipped with Mac OS 7.6). (Thanks to several readers who pointed this out.)

b. The problem is likely linked to SimpleText accessing new Mac OS 8 options for creating clippings files. Note for example, when you create a clippings file with the older version of SimpleText it is called "text clipping." When you create one with the new version of SimpleText, it is called "untitled clipping." More details of this can be found in the "Controlling Clipping File Names" section of Apple's Technote 1102 on Mac OS 8.

As such, I have some concern that this bug may appear in other applications that access Mac OS 8's new clippings features in a manner similar to SimpleText.

c. If you have a clipping file that already has this problem, it is no big deal. You can still copy it to a document by dragging it to the document of any application that supports drag-and-drop. However, if you want to fiddle with ResEdit, I discovered another alternative (also spotted by Giovanni De Carlo, Ernst Mulder and Bob Sander-Cederlof):

1. Open the clippings file in ResEdit.

2. Double-click the "drag" resource; then double-click the 128 resource listed.

3. The last 2 digits in the second row of the fifth column are "03." Change this to "02."

4. Quit ResEdit, saving when requested. Your clippings file will now open without a memory error.

d. Alternatively, you can use any of a number of utilities to help. For example, with ClipStation, simply drag the clipping file to the ClipStation icon and the text is transferred to the Clipboard.

Update: Bob Sander writes that "Apple reported to me that they have found and fixed the bug. It did indeed have to do with the new naming feature in clippings. However, the bug was in the Mac OS 8 Finder rather than in SimpleText 1.4."

Update: Anthony Saxton writes: "The problem is that Mac OS 8 places an incorrect index within the clipping reporting an additional resource that doesn't actually exist. This will cause errors (Usually out of memory) when trying to view some clippings. I have incorporated into ClipDragon 1.2 a fix for this clipping bug. Registered users can Shift-drag a clipping to ClipDragon to repair it. Non-registered users need to drag the clipping twice to convert it to a document and back to a clipping."