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From: bskendig@drops.Princeton.EDU (Brian Kendig)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: Misuse of the system folder...
Message-ID: <8092@idunno.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 10 Apr 91 13:40:37 GMT
References: <1991Apr10.093946.22779@allgfx.agi.oz>
Sender: news@idunno.Princeton.EDU
Organization: Starfleet Academy: Princeton University
Lines: 32

In article <1991Apr10.093946.22779@allgfx.agi.oz> tkav@allgfx.agi.oz (Tony Kavadias) writes:
>I would like to see offending software developers in future make careful plans
>as to where they put their preference files.  DUMPING THEM IN THE SYSTEM FOLDER
>IS NOT THE SOLUTION.  Thanks to them, we all have a messy System 6.0.  Let's
>not make the same mistake for System 7.0!!!
>
>     a) place all non-sharable files outside the system folder.  The best
>          place to keep them would be in the same folder as the application.
>
>     b) for little things like preferences and other application-specific
>          details, put them in the application file's data fork.  They will
>          be hidden, save the system folder from congestion, and do their job.

Problems, here.  First of all, I can't write to the folder my
application is in; it's on a read-only server.  I suppose the
application could put its preference files in its own folder when it
can and in my system folder otherwise, but then what happens with it
finds preference files in both places?

Secondly, I don't want to have to work with someone else's
preferences.  I boot off my own disk, and the applications I run are
configured just the way I want them.

And writing preferences to the data fork isn't a terribly good thing
-- what happens if somehow my preferences get trashed?

     << 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*."