Snow Leopard creator codes aren't coming back

Since the release of Snow Leoapard, there has been quite a stir because of the loss of creator codes, which were in previous versions of OS X.  Creator codes allow you to choose which application opens a particular file.  If developers wanted to open a txt file in Word or BBEdit as opposed to a TextEdit default for instance, they could change the creator code in the file.  Then when you double clicked it, you could avoid the “open with” dialogue.

Today we learn they aren’t coming back.  Tidbits found some new evidence that Apple has officially announced the change:

…in a recent revision (17 November 2009) of its Launch Services documentation, Apple explicitly calls out the change in a boxed note:

Note: In Mac OS X version 10.6 and later, Launch Services no longer considers file creator signatures when binding documents to applications. Launch Services ignores the creator signature when it’s attached to a document. In addition, the functions LSCopyKindStringForTypeInfo and LSGetApplicationForInfo ignore the parameter containing the creator signature.

And in a later boxed note on the same page:

Note: Criterion 4a [i.e. the conflict-resolution rule that gives primacy to a document’s creator code, if it has one] does not apply in Mac OS X version 10.6 and later.

The creator codes were known to be missing when Snow Leopard went official, but there had been some hope that they’d return in a later release.

We can’t wait to read the Gruber rant on this.