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Re: AppleScript & HTML Again...
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Re: AppleScript & HTML Again...


  • Subject: Re: AppleScript & HTML Again...
  • From: "Dennis W. Manasco" <email@hidden>
  • Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 04:26:06 -0600

At 7:03 pm -0600 3/28/04, John C. Welch wrote:

I can make three - four assumptions that are going to be valid on most Macs running Missing Link:

1) They'll use the default open: protocol name
2) Their boot drives will be named either "Macintosh HD" or "Mac OS X"
3) Apple provided applications will be in /Applications and /Applications/Utilities. And that there will be a few others in /System/Library/CoreServices.


You don't need to make assumption 2:

`cd ~/../../Applications/`
will always lead you to the Applications directory,

`cd ~/../../Applications/Utilities/`
will always lead you to the Utilities directory, and

`cd ~/../../System/Library/CoreServices/`
will always lead you to CoreServices.

Any standard Apple-supplied program is almost certain to be accessible using this pattern.

Why?

Because Apple's OS X upgrade and update strategy seems to be predicated on the name and hierarchical location of these (and other) directories (rather than something intelligent like TYPE and CREATOR).

No one dares change either the name or the position of the default directories, nor the location of the programs placed therein, lest their system become useless and unusable the next time they connect to Software Update.

Granted, standard UNIX system files must reside in certain locations for the system to work, but is that any reason why an upgrade of (for instance) Safari should fail spectacularly if the original application has been moved? Certainly the location of any program in the /Applications folder, /Applications/Utilities folder, or any other non-System folder, should be changeable with impunity.

I also see no reason why the location and hierarchical position of ~ should be restricted at all, other than the backwash from sloppy programming. Indeed, placing ~ in an arbitrary location at an arbitrary level seems like a reasonable supplementary security strategy.

IMHO Apple's apparent insistence on requiring Apple-supplied applications to be in unvarying locations is a major security breach waiting to happen.


-=-Dennis
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      • From: Walter Ian Kaye <email@hidden>
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 >Re: AppleScript & HTML Again... (From: "John C. Welch" <email@hidden>)

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