Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!usc!ucsd!ucbvax!hoptoad!tim
From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: INIT getting it's file name...
Message-ID: <8831@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 28 Oct 89 06:15:14 GMT
References: <56505@tiger.oxy.edu> <4020@helios.ee.lbl.gov> <5511@umd5.umd.edu>
Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco
Lines: 27

One:  This is largely a philosophical/aesthetic quibble, but really,
you shouldn't write into code files if you can help it.  It's better to
use an external preferences file.  Not only does this preserve a
valuable dichotomy between code and data, but it allows the user to
independently throw away the user/run-time settings or the code,
instead of having to discard or regenerate both at once.

Two:  If you want to allow renaming without file ids, the best way to
do it is generally to use the creator longword.  You can almost
trivially write code to loop over all files in the system folder until
it encounters one with your unique creator longword and the appropriate
file type, then use that.  This completely bypasses the file name, and
works both under System 7.0 and earlier systems.  In practice, it's
also fast enough unless you're doing very frequent updates.  I don't
think you'd want to use this if you were writing the file 60 times a
second; then again, you don't want to do an OpenResFile, WriteResource,
CloseResFile every 60th of a second either!

Three:  I have always felt that the ability to rename INITs is
overrated.  I mean, who cares if you can or not?  However, few people
agree with me on this.
-- 
Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com

"`Truth' never set anyone free.  It is only *doubt* which will bring
 mental emancipation."
        -- Anton LaVey, quoted by Arthur Lyons, SATAN WANTS YOU