Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!husc6!sunfs3!kent From: kent@sunfs3.camex.uucp (Kent Borg) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer Subject: Re: System 7.0 & Aliases Message-ID: <499@sunfs3.camex.uucp> Date: 6 Sep 89 18:15:07 GMT References: <1430@intercon.UUCP> <951@cbnewsk.ATT.COM> <4453@cps3xx.UUCP> <1436@intercon.UUCP> Reply-To: kent@lloyd.UUCP (Kent Borg) Organization: Camex, Inc., Boston, Mass USA Lines: 109 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 \--------------^--------------------/ [don't under estimate the importance of those first two weeks--or two minutes] >that I do is occasionally rearrange my directory hierarchy now and then. ... >How many people actually feel that File IDs will solve a problem they >have with using their Macintosh? I don't mean to flame--I'm genuinely >curious, although I'm interested in more concrete answers than "it >would just be cool, that's all" :-)... I don't think they solve many current problems, but I do think they prevent future problems with aliases. I know from my own use of computers, and recently Bill Steinberg's Launch application, that aliases will have value. What I don't know is whether they will be worth the confusion they will add to the Macintosh user interface. That is a different question. Let's, for the moment, ignore that question and assume aliases are a good idea. In the Macintosh, the user is King. So, what will aliases look like to the `average' user? The prototypical "Mom" is often wheeled in at this point, and my mother got a Macintosh Plus at Christmas so... "Well, Mom, an alias is a little like a magic window on another file or application on your disk." "Oh, like a copy." "Yes, but there is still only one copy of the file, there is just more than one way to get at it." "Oh... Why would I want that?" And here the question of the value of aliases reappears, but what of the explanation? With the alias being the volume name and file ID, the simple explanation above fits. It is the file which has an alias. If, instead, the alias is implemented with a path it is no longer the file alone which has an alias, it is the file in a particular location on a particular path. My mother a week later: "I've been using these aliases a little, but they don't always work. They sometimes ask me where the file is, even when I haven't moved it. Why do they keep forgetting?" "The aliases point to the file--but only in that one place. If you move the file you will have to change all its aliases--or if you change the name of any of the folder along the path--" "What `Path'?" "Um, it's a technical term. If you have a folder inside a folder and change the name of the outside folder, the alias will no longer be able to find what is in the the inner folder." "Why not? Never mind... So if I use aliases I won't be able to rearrange my windows?" "No, you can move things inside a folder, just not between folders, and you can't change any of the names." "*Any* names?" "No, any of the names `above' the aliased file." "`Above'? I'm not sure I understand, but it sure seems dumb. Why can't it just refer to the file whereever it is? It saw me move it or change some important name someplace, it should know where the file is, why ask me?" "Umm, It wasn't paying attention. If computers were simple, people like wouldn't make as much money..." Using file IDs to implement aliases means that the *files* have aliases. Using path names means that the *paths* have the aliases. What do Macintosh users currently deal with, files or paths? Which will be clearest for users? Files of course, the things which have icons. Why should users have any reason to have to worry about paths? Don't think of file IDs as private, competing names, think of them as serial numbers. Whether you call your car Bertha or Betty has nothing to do with which car it is, and which car it is can be unambigiously referred to by its vehical identification number. A file ID says which file it is, independent of the name, and the file ID has different purposes from those of a name. Apple already avoided paths once in its design of the Macintosh (search paths for finding applications), and it was a good idea, it made the Macintosh much easier to use. Once again, I think it is important to keep paths out of it and not force the user to worry about the concept of a path at all. It is confusing and unnecessary. >"The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody > appreciates how difficult it was" --Walt West Yup. -- Kent Borg "You know me, bright ideas kent@lloyd.uucp just pop into my head!" or -Mrs Lovett ...!husc6!lloyd!kent (from Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeny Todd")