Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!world!boris From: boris@world.std.com (Boris Levitin) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc Subject: Re: More Get-Info, and the DeskTop Keywords: click and command-i Message-ID: <1990Sep27.224747.22251@world.std.com> Date: 27 Sep 90 22:47:47 GMT References: <1990Sep27.032038.21661@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu> Organization: The World @ Software Tool & Die Lines: 79 yip@mcgill-vision.uucp (McGill/CONCAVE Group) writes: >Thanks to all who responded to my question on the Get-Info >feature. As most wrote to say, rebuilding the DeskTop >does indeed erase the information fields, as I double-checked >with a quick test. So what use can these information fields >have then? Apple should have included code in the Mac Operating System which would have preserved the comments when rebuilding the Desktop file, but didn't. It's a design flaw. Send your complaints to Cupertino. >While we're on the subject of the DeskTop ... It's not "the DeskTop," it's the Desktop file, i.e. a file called "Desktop" in the root directory of your disk. Again, it's a file like any other (with the "invisibility" bit set, i.e. it is not visible from the Finder). The Desktop file exists because apparently (this is the version I heard) the original operating system design left no other place for icon and application location information to go, so it was put in a special file where the OS can look for it. The Get Info comments also went there. The Desktop file is not the same as "the desktop," the Finder's metaphorical representation of your disks, folders and files. The Desktop file contains information critical to the Finder's operation; that's how it got its name. When the MacOS asks you whether you wish to "rebuild the Desktop," it's actually asking whether you want to rebuild the Desktop file. >1. Is there an analogous concept (to DeskTop) in the PC-world? > (i.e., what *is* the DeskTop anyways!?) DOS doesn't represent files graphically and does not have an equivalent to the way the Finder lets you launch an application and automatically read in a data file by simply double-clicking on the data file. Data files on DOS are stored without any reference to the application that created them. Therefore DOS does not need the info stored in the MacOS's Desktop file. OS/2 and Windows do need this information, but I don't know whether they use a special file(s) to store it or some other place. Ask Microsoft Tech Support. >2. When I use DiskTop to find the DeskTop, it actually > finds several copies. Where did they come from, and > which is the real one? Should my information fields be > embedded in the real one? Each volume (normally a volume is a disk, but the term could also apply to a disk partition or to a folder shared over a network, even to a DOS directory accessed over Tops; in short, a volume is something you can mount) has its own Desktop file. When you do a Find File search, you should be able to locate one and only one file called "Desktop" (lowercase 't') in the root directory of each mounted volume. For example, if you have an unpartitioned hard disk and a floppy inside the floppy drive, you should find two Desktop files. A virus called "Scores," fairly old but still around, creates a file called "Desktop " (with a space at the end of its name) in the System Folder (not the root level) of an afflicted disk, as part of its self-perpetuation activities. If you find a file called "Desktop " in a System Folder, eradicate the virus using Disinfectant 2.1 or similar program (just removing that file won't help, since Scores also does other things to your system). This file, of course, has nothing to do with the real "Desktop" file created in a volume's root directory. (Oh, the virus's file is also invisible from the Finder, but will be found by Find File.) >3. What does "rebuilding" the DeskTop mean? Deleting the old one, creating a new one, scanning the volume's file directory and applications' resource forks (where their icons and those of their data files are stored), and putting this info in the new Desktop file. >-Rick Vitale. Boris Levitin ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WGBH Public Broadcasting, Boston boris@world.std.com Audience & Marketing Research wgbx!boris_levitin@athena.mit.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (The opinions expressed herein are my own and do not necessarily coincide with those of my employer or anyone else. The WGBH tag is for ID only.)