Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!tank!eecae!cps3xx!usenet
From: usenet@cps3xx.UUCP (Usenet file owner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: System 7.0 & Aliases
Summary: Why I think aliases would be useful for me.
Keywords: aliases uses file IDs
Message-ID: <4468@cps3xx.UUCP>
Date: 5 Sep 89 20:23:42 GMT
References: <1430@intercon.UUCP> <951@cbnewsk.ATT.COM> <4453@cps3xx.UUCP> <1436@intercon.UUCP>
Reply-To: rang@frith.egr.msu.edu (Anton Rang)
Organization: Engineering, Michigan State University, E. Lansing
Lines: 41

In article <1436@intercon.UUCP> amanda@intercon.uu.net (Amanda Walker) writes:
>I may just be staid and boring, but I don't see the point of all of the
>people that say how File IDs will make it so much easier to "move files
>around."   How many people rearrange their disks a lot (beyond the first
>2 weeks right after purchase, anyway)?  The closest thing I can think of
>that I do is occasionally rearrange my directory hierarchy now and then.

  I don't rearrange my disk a lot, but I do move individual files
around quite a bit based on usage.  For instance, when I'm using my
terminal emulator a lot, it tends to get moved closer up toward the
top of the hierarchy (normally it sits far down within 3 folders).  If
I'm doing much work with a story I'm writing, that folder pops up a
bit (I would move the particular chapter up, but there isn't a good
place to put it, except on the Desktop which makes my top level messy).

>I mean, I can construct scenarios where I would move things around a lot,
>but I find it hard to imagine actually doing so in normal day-to-day life.
>Aliases make it a little easier to imagine, but still...

  It depends on usage patterns, I guess.  I could live with a method
that let the Finder keep track of things on the Desktop better, even.
I wouldn't mind putting things on the Desktop (though it might get
cluttered) if they would stay in their home folders (one of my pet
peeves about HFS vs. MFS)!  Also, it's nice to keep some applications
together with their data files, but have the application somewhere
more easily accessible.
  I would love to be able to have a folder which contained, say,
aliases for my 8 most-frequently-used applications, and another with
aliases for utility programs.  I can do that right now, but their data
files don't stick around, and neither do documentation files (or help
files, configuration files, etc.).  That's what I'd use aliases for:
so I don't have to open 4 levels of folders to get at an application,
even though that's where I want to put the application *and its files*
(if there aren't any other files there's no problem with the current
method).
  Comments?  Suggestions?  Anything?

+----------------------------------+-------------------------+
| Anton Rang (grad student)        | "VMS Forever!"          |
| University of Wisconsin--Madison | rang@cpsvax.cps.msu.edu |
+----------------------------------+-------------------------+