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From: kent@sunfs3.Camex.COM (Kent Borg)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Sys7.0 aliases and MPW
Message-ID: <1902@camex.COM>
Date: 1 Apr 91 20:31:03 GMT
References: <50943@apple.Apple.COM> <1991Mar29.144130.25920@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <1991Mar29.190809.25417@casbah.acns.nwu.edu>
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In article <1991Mar29.144130.25920@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> 
dorner@pequod.cso.uiuc.edu (Steve Dorner) writes:
> I guess this is old news, but you mean that system 7 aliases require
> cooperation from my application?
> 
> Surrealism is alive and well, and living in the Macintosh filesystem...

Well, no.  This is another case of you people confusing features with
bugs.

7.0 aliases are not part of the file system, they are higher level
things, figments of the imaginations of Finder and Standard File--and
any other code that likes the same drugs.  They are also compatible
with the old file system--though not usable by an old system.  (You
know, no reformatting your hard disk with a new file structure to
implement aliases.)

By being high level beasts, alaises can fairly easily do things like
search for files that have moved or changed their file id's, they can
also automatically mount an AppleShare volume, etc.

By being high level beasts, they cannot help out the application that
tries to open the alias directly.  (Imagine that!, trying to open a
file...)

I know I like 7.0 aliases better than Unix links, but I am sure they
are going to cause my Mom some major confusions, and I am not sure I
like the level at which they were implemented.  Ask me in a year.

I will suggest that it might be nice if the crucial File Manager
calls were updated to resolve aliases without being asked--so long as
we can still open the alias itself.

In article <1991Mar29.190809.25417@casbah.acns.nwu.edu> jln@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (John Norstad) writes:
>Long live surrealism!

And surrealism is nothing new for the Mac.  We have had HFS for awhile
now...


--
Kent Borg                            internet: kent@camex.com   AOL: kent borg
                                            H:(617) 776-6899  W:(617) 426-3577
"We foolishly did not realize that he was stupid."  - April Glasbie 3-20-91