Re: File Access Issues
Re: File Access Issues
- Subject: Re: File Access Issues
- From: "John W. Baxter" <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2003 16:34:40 -0700
- Envelope-to: email@hidden
On 9/18/2003 23:31, "Emmanuel" <email@hidden> wrote:
>
>
At 4:47 PM -0700 18/09/03, Randy Beaudreault wrote:
>
> Hi Everyone,
>
>
>
> I'm having problems getting the following code to run properly:
>
> set Date_File to open for access
>
> ":Users:maccult:Library:Preferences:once-a-day"
>
> close access Date_File
>
>
>
> Every time I run it, after a first run that creates the file in the first
>
> place, I get this message:
>
> Duplicate file name. :Users:maccult:Library:Preferences:once-a-day
>
>
>
> Is this an AppleScript bug or a bug in my script?
>
>
I don't know whether this is relevant to your problem, but your script is the
>
1st time I see an AppleScript path starting with ":Users". Are you sure that's
>
legal?
Well, it's legal. Context suggests that this is intended to be the usual
Users folder, not somewhere else. So it's unlikely to be useful (or
intended).
The path starting with :Users is a relative path through the Users directory
found in the current working directory.
So only if the current working directory were / would the path starting with
:Users be useful.
The usual way to phrase it as a Macintosh path would be to name the startup
volume and make the path absolute:
nicedisk:Users:maccult:Library:Preferences:once-a-day
Or of course, use a Unix path: /Users/.../once-a-day
In the proper context for that.
For folks coming to the Mac from Unix:
:X in Mac is very different from /X in Unix
The first leading : in a Mac path says "this is relative". Another subtle
point is that :: somewhere in a path is "up one from here", rather than the
second : being a noop, as the second (first?) of consecutive /s is in a Unix
path. So abc::def is def within the current working directory (if abc is a
directory), rather than being def in abc, as abc//def is.
Some of this goes back to the Macintosh origins, in which there were (400K
floppy) disks and files on the disks, denoted as disk:file. Finder in those
days created the illusion of a hierarchy, but the actual structure was flat.
So all the Unix complexity from those days wasn't needed (and a different
delimiter was wisely chosen, since it had a different job).
--John
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