Re: proper location for a database file
Re: proper location for a database file
- Subject: Re: proper location for a database file
- From: Nicholas Riley <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2002 21:39:00 -0600
- Mail-followup-to: Glenn Howes <email@hidden>, email@hidden
On Tue, Nov 26, 2002 at 11:02:37AM -0600, Glenn Howes wrote:
>
OK, here is my reason to not treat the database as a document. By it's
>
very nature a database is made more valuable by increasing its size.
>
Splitting up a databases information into separate smaller databases
>
diminishes the whole. Documents on the other hand derive there power
>
from limiting their contents to what is useful to a given, time limited
>
task.
This last statement isn't inconsistent with treating databases as
documents. For example, my research to do list is an OmniOutliner
document that sits in my dock; it grows and shrinks over time, but 99%
of the time I'm using my Mac I have it open. Does this mean it should
be considered a database and stuck in ~/Library?
Of the applications you mentioned, iTunes exposes its music library
(~/Music/iTunes/iTunes 3 Music Library). So should iPhoto IMO, as
made clear by third-party programs such as 'iPhoto Library Manager'
which use hacks to get iPhoto to recognize multiple libraries.
What if you've got two Macs and want to copy or merge the library from
one to the other? By implementing documents as preference information
or imposing your own filing system, you're placing a rather arbitrary
restriction on people's working styles.
If you want your app to behave like iTunes, then just create a
document on first launch, save it automatically and reopen it on
launch. People who never look in the File menu (or Preferences, if
you save an alias pointing to the default document location there)
will never know the difference, and people who want to manage multiple
files have the flexibility they need.
--
=Nicholas Riley <email@hidden> | <
http://www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/njriley>
Pablo Research Group, Department of Computer Science and
Medical Scholars Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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