Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!dlyons
From: dlyons@Apple.COM (David Lyons)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: system 5.0 boo-boo (63 date)
Message-ID: <33738@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 5 Aug 89 00:28:34 GMT
References: <890804154633.137428@DOCKMASTER.ARPA>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 36

In article <890804154633.137428@DOCKMASTER.ARPA> TMPLee@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL writes:
>[...] I don't know what the
>officially released disks are called, but would assume they are
>System.Disk and System.Tools.)

Yup.

>By the way -- what is the motivation for changing path names to using
>:'s instead of /'s?  Damned confusing since most applications even if
>they use the toolbox routines still tend to use /'s in lots of places,
>and of course ProD[OS]8 only knows about /'s.

ProDOS 8 isn't affected, since the separators (":" or "/") aren't stored
on disk in the file system anyway.

GS/OS allows both ":" and "/" to be used as separators in pathnames, but
you can't mix them inside any given pathname.  Whichever of the two appears
first is the separator, and if "/" is the separator no ":"s are allowed.

But life was simpler when "/" was the only separator...why change?  Because
even though ProDOS doesn't allow "/" in filenames, AppleShare does (and so
do other filing systems that GS/OS may want to support in the future).

Note that the "old" toolbox and OS calls that existing programs use still
return slashes whenever they can.  For example, SFGetFile returns a pathname
with slashes for separators, unless slashes are actually being used within
filenames or directory names in the path.  (I hope I got that right.)

 --Dave Lyons, Apple Computer, Inc.          |   DAL Systems
   AppleLink--Apple Edition: DAVE.LYONS      |   P.O. Box 875
   AppleLink--Personal Edition: Dave Lyons   |   Cupertino, CA 95015-0875
   GEnie: D.LYONS2 or DAVE.LYONS         CompuServe: 72177,3233
   Internet/BITNET:  dlyons@apple.com    UUCP:  ...!ames!apple!dlyons

   My opinions are my own, not Apple's.