Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!wuarchive!sdd.hp.com!apollo!apollo.hp.com!weber_w
From: weber_w@apollo.HP.COM (Walt Weber)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st.tech
Subject: Re: Hidden Files
Message-ID: <4f3e90a0.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM>
Date: 16 Jan 91 19:16:00 GMT
References: <1991Jan16.163558.26338@arc.ab.ca>
Sender: root@apollo.HP.COM
Reply-To: weber_w@apollo.hp.com
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Chelmsford Response Center
Lines: 31


In article <1991Jan16.163558.26338@arc.ab.ca>, Bob Erkamp writes:
|> Is there a program that will 'reveal' hidden files on the atari?

Universal Item Selector III (and II) have a switch to control file selector
behavior, one of which is "show hidden". Disk editors which look at the
directory will show them. Many of the available command shells will show
them in a listing.

|> STMirror on my drive and discovered a hidden file (Neodesk.dat) and I think 
|> that it really sucks that NeoDesk 3.0 creates this file. I would like
to know
|> what's in it and why it's there.

Well, your Neo3 manual states that this is where the "volume name" goes, unless
the volume has already been named by a formatter using the "directory entry"
method in the root volume. It's unclear to me why the characterization that Neo
"sucks", except out of surprise at finding something you didn't understand. The
fault seems to be more yours, in not reading the docs, than theirs, in creating
this behavior. Watch out for the behavior of the recoverable trash can - it is
documented to use this technique, as well as "not following expected behavior"
to do what it does.

|> Bob

...walt...

Walt Weber                           Hewlett Packard Response Center
508-256-6600x8315                    Chelmsford, MA, USA
   "The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism
    by those who have not got it" -George Bernard Shaw