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From: francis@arthur.uchicago.edu (Francis Stracke)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Resource File for preferences?
Message-ID: <1990Oct10.155702.13486@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: 10 Oct 90 15:57:02 GMT
References: <546@skye.cs.ed.ac.uk>
Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator)
Organization: Mathematics Department, University of Chicago
Lines: 29

In article <546@skye.cs.ed.ac.uk> nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk writes:
>I need to implement a (System Folder) preferences file for an
>application. I'm toying with the idea of using a resource file rather
[...]
>Is there anything wrong with this approach? I seem to recall a Tech Note
>threatening to set the Toolbox Police on anyone who tried to use the
>Resource Manager as a database...
>
>On a more general note: since all my data files are of fixed size, and I
>don't need random access or sequential read/write, why should I use data
>files at all? 
>

That TN specifically said the problem was that, for huge files,
(primarily, ones done by the user), the Resource Manager would be
much too slow--also, it would introduce an arbitrary limit (i.e.,
2^16 resources of each type).  A prefs file should be no problem--
quite small, no? And I would guess that, if your data files can't
grow at the user's whim, it should be OK.  (The only real problem
I can see here is if you use a type that winds up happening to
overlap with some other program's file
open at the same time, maybe by a DA,
& you read that other file.  This would probably happen only if
your file doesn't happen to contain the type.)

| Francis Stracke		| My opinions are my own.  I don't steal them.|
| Department of Mathematics	|=============================================|
| University of Chicago		| A mathematician is a professional	      |
| francis@zaphod.uchicago.edu	|   schizophrenic.--Me.		       	      |