Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!bu.edu!cs.bu.edu!ckd From: ckd@cs.bu.edu (Christopher Davis) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system Subject: Re: Why are prefs put in files, not resources? Message-ID: Date: 10 Jan 91 05:53:35 GMT References: <1991Jan10.044428.6108@spool.cs.wisc.edu> Sender: news@bu.edu.bu.edu Organization: 1000000011000101, Inc. Lines: 41 In-reply-to: tonyrich@titanic.cs.wisc.edu's message of 10 Jan 91 04:44:28 GMT Anthony> == tonyrich@titanic.cs.wisc.edu (Anthony Rich) writes: Anthony> Is there some compelling reason why [saving preferences data Anthony> within the program is] a bad thing to do? Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Several times over. 1) Backup programs (like, say, DiskFit). Would you rather back up the 700K application, or the 30K preferences file? 2) Locking your applications to keep them more virus-safe... 3) RUNNING FROM A SERVER. This is a BIG one. Let's say we've got 5 Macs in the department, 5 copies of Word, but none of the machines have hard disks yet. So we put Word on the AppleShare server... and suddenly everyone else is stuck with MY preferences, since I'm the only one who can write to the server volume... Anthony> Nobody likes the way the System Folder gets cluttered with Anthony> preferences files. Newer programs put prefs files in a single Anthony> Preferences folder in the System Folder, but it's still hard to Anthony> know which preferences files go with which program. I dunno. "Word Settings" seems to indicate MS Word pretty easily... as does something like "Canvas Prefs", "Stuffit Deluxe Preferences", or what have you. Anthony> A disadvantage would be that when a program is upgraded, a Anthony> preference resource in the old program would have to be copied Anthony> to the new one. But an installer program could easily do that. Anthony> (Of course, nobody likes or trusts installer programs, either. Anthony> :^) What about folks who just drag the old one over, because they don't read the README file? -- [ Christopher Davis - - <..!bu.edu!cs.bu.edu!ckd> ] A message destined for delivery in *your* domain is fair game for anything you may want to do, up to and including translating the entire message, header and all, into Swahili. -- chip@tct.uucp (Chip Salzenberg)