Apple

On Feb 17, 2012, at 3:46 PM, Luther Fuller wrote:

While working on a script this afternoon, I noticed something that shouldn't happen.
So, I wrote this quick test script (in 10.6.8) to discover what was happening ...

set deskAlias to (path to desktop)
tell application "Finder"
if exists folder "TEST" of deskAlias then
(folder "TEST" of deskAlias) as alias as text
tell application "System Events" to delete disk item the result
end if
delay 1
set newFolder to (make new folder at deskAlias with properties {name:"TEST"}) as alias
delay 1
get comment of newFolder
display dialog the result buttons {"OK"} default button 1
end tell

After the first run, you will have a folder "TEST" on your desktop.
Get Info for this folder and enter some text in the comment field. Close Get Info.

Now run this script again, and again, and ...

Every time it runs, it displays the text you entered in the comment field.
Yet the folder and presumably its comment have been deleted on each run.

The fix is to use this:
set newFolder to (make new folder at deskAlias with properties {name:"TEST", comment:""}) as alias

Anyone have an explanation?

In the old days comments were stored in the Desktop Database. Presumably now they’re stored in some plist file, which is not directly associated with the folder itself. So the folder can be deleted and recreated and the comments will remain, inaccessible when the folder does not exist, but present whenever the folder does exist.

Jon

References:
	>Ghost Comments (From: Luther Fuller <email@hidden>)