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From: bskendig@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Brian Kendig)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: System 7 Aliases - only half there
Message-ID: <7174@idunno.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 14 Mar 91 21:55:24 GMT
References: <1991Mar14.203258.16538@fcom.cc.utah.edu>
Sender: news@idunno.Princeton.EDU
Organization: Starfleet Academy: Princeton University
Lines: 65

In article <1991Mar14.203258.16538@fcom.cc.utah.edu> t-jacobs@ced.utah.edu writes:
>.... allow a shortcut to
>making an Alias by option-shift-dragging the file to the destination to create
>an alias at the destination. This makes is possible to make aliases of
>read-only folder items. This also speeds up the process for regular aliases
>too. 

Hear, hear!  This is a wonderful idea.  "Duplicate" from the File menu
has both a command-key equivalent (Command-D) and a shortcut (option-
dragging); why is it that "Make Alias" (which I feel is going to be
used more than Duplicate) has neither?  Option-shift-dragging seems
like the perfect shortcut to me.

>Aliases don't work in many places. Many programs and utilities go looking for
>stuff in the System folder. It appears that they look for the file by name and
>upon finding it do a resource open which of course opens up the Alias file and
>not the file it points to! It seems like the low level stuff ought to point
>any kind of "OPEN" to an Alias file to the actual file. If an Alias file needs
>to be opened then some kind of special open should be called.

Hear, hear!  I had both System 6 and System 7 on my hard drive at once
for a while, and to cut down on disk usage I aliased a lot of INITs
from my System 6 folder into the System 7 folder rather than making
duplicate copies of them.  I didn't even get a warning -- they didn't
work.  It was as if the aliases weren't even there.  Why can't I alias
my INITs and cdevs?

>Even the System itself doesn't do the right thing!!!!!! You can't have an
>Alias of any of the special system folders (Apple Menu, Extensions, Controls,
>Preferences, etc) replace the actual folder. Meaning the real folder is
>somewhere else other that the System folder and the Alias is in the System
>folder. I WANT THIS FEATURE!

So do I!  It sems rather flaky to me to have aliases be essentially
the real things elsewhere, but not in the System Folder.

>I would like to make aliases of downloadable laser files and put them in the
>Extensions folder so I don't have to keep the actual files around locally.
>Meaning I want the aliases to point to real files on the file server. Printing
>doesn't work this way (at least not in System 7b4).

Hear, hear!  And I'd *love* a folder to put my Adobe Type 1 font files
into.  Right now my System Folder has about ten to fifteen folders and
other system files sitting in it, and about forty Adobe font files.
This would be bearable if only Suitcase II worked with System 7.0,
which it still doesn't (version 1.2.8 conflicts nastily with the 7.0b1
Finder), but shouldn't the LaserWriter drivers be able to be told
where to find their PostScript font files?  So much for reducing
System Folder clutter!

>FOR FUTURE CONSUMPTION: How about aliases to resources inside files! That
>could allow applications to have shared code or other resources. Kind of a
>lower level publish & suscribe of sorts!

Sounds kinky!  But really, I don't know if this is necessary.  If
files have to share code, you create some sort of `engine' file they
can both work off.  Shared resources are best placed in a temp file or
a preferences file.

     << Brian >>

| Brian S. Kendig      \ Macintosh |   Engineering,   | bskendig             |
| Computer Engineering |\ Thought  |  USS Enterprise  | @phoenix.Princeton.EDU
| Princeton University |_\ Police  | -= NCC-1701-D =- | @PUCC.BITNET         |
"It's not that I don't HAVE the work to *do* -- I don't DO the work I *have*."