Re: Dot files
Re: Dot files
- Subject: Re: Dot files
- From: Doug McNutt <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 10:56:38 -0600
At 08:30 +0100 6/20/06, Ruth Bygrave wrote, and I snipped a bit.:
>Blimey, have I started something here?
I think so. The something is most of the things that made Apple's Classic OS great.
>I Am slightly under-impressed with this whole external metadata thing . . .That's fine: it's outside the files because it's not part of the files, it's part of how the shell views the files.
The shell hardly views the files unless you're using Terminal.app or an editor like emacs or a BBEdit worksheet. The metadata is better considered a feature of the file system. Finder is NOT a shell but we might well be better off if it were. Anyone know why not? Why isn't Terminal.app part of Finder? Why can't Finder set environment variables for everything - including applications - that it spawns
>but if it's part of the file's content it should be _in_ the file. .... if it's Finder stuff to do with displaying files I don't need it at all for the small flash drive.
There are things, not associated with display, that should NOT be in the file. The choice of application that should be used depends on the user and may be different on different machines. It is NOT good enough to say that all files with an extension to the name like .txt must go to the same application when "opened." Text files should be text. Perhaps UTF08 or UTF16 but not formatted files with special characters - gremlins - that keep the file from working when sent to a compiler, a scientific instrument, or a text messaging system. The preferred monitor on which a file should be displayed is included in Microsoft Excel (.xls) files. It creates a telephone call every time I forget to move all windows to the center and re-save before sending them to someone else.
When I change the desired application to open a single file OS neXt should NOT create or enlarge an associated resource fork to contain some 50 kB of copies of the selected application's icons. That stuff belongs in the desktop database which disappeared with OS neXt.
do shell script "open -a Firefox http://www.macnauchtan.com";
ought to open in Firefox rather than Safari even though Safari remains my default browser.
>So I'm slightly confused.
So am I. Part of the problem is that UNIX never has supported the concept of an application "owning" a file. It can hardly understand the concept of an application and that results in crazy things like logging in to Aqua desktop without ever logging into the UNIX of old with a shell. There was a time when "dot" files .profile or .cshrc file could be depended upon. No longer. We have $HOME/.Mac_OSX/environment.plist - another "Dot" file/directory - which no one is supposed to know about but do_shell_script needs if you want to personalize your environment.
The things that made the classic OS great were the intellectual property of Apple Computer and not the Free Software Foundation. NeXt Computing Inc. could not incorporate them into Next Step. When Apple bought NeXt they did not incorporate the good things of NeXt. Rather they emasculated HFS+ and Classic in the name of compatibility with NextStep which was not allowed to include the likes of TYPE and CREATOR.
UNIX does offer the concept of packages. OS neXt uses them for software distribution and storage. They are quite the same as resource forks and in fact Apple once worked on multiple forks associated with each file. Gershwin, I think. It would be quite possible for Apple to get those ._ * files into packages where they wouldn't need to be invisible. Problems there are that the Windoze world would need to learn to send and receive MIME attachments which contain a package. Packages are really just folders which are displayed as files by Finder. Allowing general users to see that would be a start at education. Getting rid of requirements for a /contents/ folder within a package would be another.
Better music and video entertainment is the future of Apple/Pixar/Disney. *NIX will live on by itself.
--
Applescript syntax is like English spelling:
Roughly, though not thoroughly, thought through.
_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Applescript-users mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
This email sent to email@hidden