Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!peltz
From: peltz@cerl.uiuc.edu (Steve Peltz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Finder bug with ./ files?
Message-ID: <1989Dec4.214611.22630@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 4 Dec 89 21:46:11 GMT
References: <5169@cbnewsc.ATT.COM> <17567@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Sender: news@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News)
Organization: UIUC Computer-based Education Research Lab
Lines: 15

In article <17567@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> erics@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Eric Schlegel) writes:
>This is a known feature (??) of the Mac. A file that starts with a dot is
>assumed to be a driver resource, and if you try to open it, the system
>tries to open a driver in the system file. and BOOM...

I don't seem to have any problems with opening or copying files that start with
a period, or even a "./" as the original poster had. There were some Pascal
libraries that would open up a driver if you specified a filename that started
with a dot, so you could easily send stuff to ".AOut" for example (or at least
I assume that's how they worked). I've still got a couple of dumb programs that
create a file ".BOut" whenever they run; I assume they were linked with a
version of the library that didn't do that.
--
Steve Peltz (almost) CFI-G
"Monticello traffic, Glider 949 landing 18, full stop"