Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!comp.vuw.ac.nz!virtue!ccc_ldo
From: ccc_ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Reserved files and folders
Message-ID: <1102.26af6327@waikato.ac.nz>
Date: 26 Jul 90 09:39:51 GMT
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
Lines: 39

It always struck me as inelegant, with all the inbuilt support for
Finder information (file types and creators, icon and window
positions and the like) in HFS, to have this invisible file called
"Desktop" on every volume. What happened if, by chance, some user
tried to save a document with that name at the root level?

I thought the Desktop Manager was a neat idea when I first heard
of it. I still do, but a little of my initial enthusiasm abated
when I found out that it replaced "Desktop" with *two* new
invisible files, admittedly with even more cryptic names.

Now I've been running (or at least walking) the alpha release
of System 7, and I see a couple of special folders, called
"Desktop Folder" and "Trash". The 7.0 Finder doesn't show them,
but they aren't even marked as invisible--you can see them
in plain view when you switch back to System 6.0.x (as I do
when I want to get some work done).

Isn't this getting a little out of hand? Shouldn't all these
bits of housekeeping be hidden away in the file structure somewhere?
How about adding new special file IDs to HFS? You already have
0 and 1 for the catalog and extents files. There should be
some way of allocating new "special" files without impacting
backward compatibility with existing systems and existing
volumes.

[In the next instalment of this column, the author will attempt
to singlehandedly invent a real-time implementation of
Unix that satisfies A1 security standards, while pedalling
backwards on a unicycle balanced on a tightrope suspended
over a pit filled with hungry C programmers, while with his
other hand he plays a guitar.]

Lawrence D'Oliveiro                       fone: +64-71-562-889
Computer Services Dept                     fax: +64-71-384-066
University of Waikato            electric mail: ldo@waikato.ac.nz
Hamilton, New Zealand    37^ 47' 26" S, 175^ 19' 7" E, GMT+12:00
"This Tandy home computer is powered by a microchip the size
of a toenail--and almost as intelligent."   -- Alexei Sayle