Re: Madness & frustration... What is a file? What is a Path?
Re: Madness & frustration... What is a file? What is a Path?
- Subject: Re: Madness & frustration... What is a file? What is a Path?
- From: Cliff Pruitt <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 17:02:36 -0400
On May 13, 2004, at 12:07 PM, email@hidden
wrote:
The reason why AppleScript's "path to" wasn't named "alias to" or
"alias of" is probably buried in the history of a classic OS
Kinda like dragging a disk to the trash to eject it. :)
that didn't want users to comprehend paths and working directories
which were reserved for the priesthood. In any case it's
English-like to expect a new user to understand the word path the
way he learned it.
The misnomer nomenclature is unfortunate, but then we do have similar
issues in human language so that really does make it English-like. ;)
Yeah I understand the point you're making, but as a new user it's not
that big a deal for me to change the way I think of paths. I
understand the concept of text paths more naturally because I work with
the web a lot, but I also understand aliases just by working on a mac
for years. Its a subtle switch in thought & nothing too painful.
Actually to be honest understanding the difference isn't hard, its just
that Apples documentation is worth crap, and finding a good reference
on how to actually work with the different data types is really rough.
I still don't understand why AS documentation is broken up into so many
language guides & none are really very clear. If anything I just wish
that AS would include maybe a built in function (if AS really has
"functions") for working with text & paths. Something like
set homePath to path to home folder
set myPath to formatAsPath(homePath & "folder1/folder2/file.txt")
-- OR
set myPath to formatAsPath(homePath & "folder1:folder2:file.txt")
I don't know if the syntax would be right but basically something that
wold just handle working with text as paths & remove any concern about
using a Unix or Mac styled path. They would just be interchangeable
and be converted between text & alias on the fly. But I'm coming from
a web programming background so I'm used to the idea that everything is
text & is just converted at runtime. I GET data types & coercion, but
they're still new to me.
AppleScript would do well to dump the alias concept altogether and
handle everything as a full path in an OS neXt environment.
Are you nuts? What if a file moves -- how the hell are you gonna find
it?
Think for a moment about the power of an alias. Are you really
advocating throwing that power into the garbage?
Oh man... no way. I'd rather take a month to learn it than deal with
the mess of having to chase down moved files. Windows is a nightmare
just because of that! I just wish you could reference aliases as their
current path but AS would just "know" you're referring to the alias.
Maybe thats how it works & i just haven't got my head round it yet.
Anyway, I'm still having fun learning so... who cares really? :-)
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