Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!cica!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hoptoad!tim From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer Subject: Re: System 7.0 Message-ID: <8397@hoptoad.uucp> Date: 27 Aug 89 01:34:06 GMT References: <227700026@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> <483@sunfs3.camex.uucp> <9173@thorin.cs.unc.edu> <13784@shamash.cdc.com> <490@sunfs3.camex.uucp> <8368@hoptoad.uucp> <3214@zeus.unl.edu> <1394@intercon.UUCP> <8381@hoptoad.uucp> <1399@intercon.UUCP> Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney) Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco Lines: 59 In article <8381@hoptoad.uucp>, tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) writes: > I guess it > really is. You seem to be reasonably well connected, and if you don't > know of any Apple answer to the network file system issue here, I'm > willing to bet that they haven't even bothered to think about it. In article <1399@intercon.UUCP> amanda@intercon.uu.net (Amanda Walker) writes: >Well, I haven't spoken to any file system people recently, so I can't be >completely certain, but that's how it looks. One thing, though, is that >file IDs are *not* mandatory. For one thing, they don't work on MFS >volumes. Since "aliases" (symbolic links) use them, that will likely mean that you won't be able to make links to applications on server volumes. That means they can't show up in the Apple menu and so they are second-class citizens.... >> David Oster had a good point about the programming implications. You >> now must save your documents by overwriting the old file. > >Actually, this isn't true. Apple wasn't entirely asleep when they came >up with this idea :-). There's a routine called "PBHExchangeFiles" that >exchanges the contents of two files (sort of like a mutual rename that >keeps the file ID attached to the name, not the file contents). Grody, >but at least it's there (at least, as of the Dev. Conf. :-)). Oh boy, more version-specific conditionals. I love those. What's wrong with "if (((environs.systemVersion & 0xff00) >> 8) < 7)" all over your code? (You don't have to answer....) So under 7.0 and up, you save to a new file, then do the exchange files, then finally do a PBDelete on the original file? I suppose it could be worse. >Sigh. This is part of my love-hate relationship with Apple. They do great >stuff, but they are off in their own world, and they are very convinced that >"being Apple" is all they need to do. There's only so long you can say >"I am The Great And Powerful Oz", though, before people start wondering >what's behind the curtain. The more Macs they sell, and the bigger they >get, the more they will have to coexist with the rest of the world. I hope >they figure this out at some point ... Don't hold your breath.... >Ah, well. At least the External File System interface will be cleaned >up a whole lot. So I've heard. That does sound like a good thing; know of any available documentation on it? The old interface still required you to do a ton of trap patches, and trap patches on the file system are *not* as easy as patches elsewhere by any means. (The reasons why are left as an exercise for the reader.) I wonder if you'll be able to write a network file system with no trap patches under System 7.0. -- Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com "Gangsters would kidnap my math teacher, Miss Albertine, and I'd track them down and kill them one by one until she was free, and then she'd break off her engagement with my sarcastic English teacher, Mr. Richardson, because she'd fallen hopelessly in love with her grim-faced and silent fourteen-year-old savior." -- Nite Owl, in WATCHMEN by Alan Moore