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From: amanda@intercon.uu.net (Amanda Walker)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: System 7.0
Message-ID: <1413@intercon.UUCP>
Date: 28 Aug 89 18:50:06 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> <3908@internal.Apple.COM> <8389@hoptoad.uucp> <3943@internal.Apple.C
Sender: news@intercon.UUCP
Reply-To: amanda@intercon.uu.net (Amanda Walker)
Organization: InterCon Systems Corporation
Lines: 32

In article <3943@internal.Apple.COM>, chewy@apple.com (Paul Snively) writes:
> With a full pathname, there's no way in hell you 
> can guarantee uniqueness.

Well, two points (and then I'll stop for now :-)):

 1. No scheme will be perfect in all circumstances.  Life's just like that.
    In fact, I'll posit a strong version of this: Given any scheme for
    identifying files, there will always be at least one very useful operation
    that will be difficult or impossible.

 2. My biggest problem with the file ID scheme is that it introduces a
    dichotomy between what the user uses to identify files and what software
    uses.  While this may make some things easier (like aliases and live
    copy & paste), it is bound to introduce confusion somewhere else.  I
    think this is a bad thing.  I don't think it's The End Of The Macintosh
    As We Know It :-), but I still think it's a bad thing.

> As for remembering dirIDs across fileserver sessions, in actual practice I 
> don't believe that an AFP server (at least) will change them.

Depends.  If the underlying file system has something like DirIDs, such as
a Macintosh-based AppleShare server, this is true.  If it's something else,
it may not.  And even on a Macintosh, DirIDs are not constant over backups
and restores, which means any software that wants to use DirIDs had
<expletive deleted> well better be able to handle them changing anyway...

--
Amanda Walker
InterCon Systems Corporation

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