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From: dwal@ellis.uchicago.edu (David Walton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: Misuse of the system folder...
Message-ID: <1991Apr10.171559.9511@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: 10 Apr 91 17:15:59 GMT
References: <1991Apr10.093946.22779@allgfx.agi.oz>
Sender: dwal@midway.uchicago.edu (David Walton)
Organization: University of Chicago, Academic and Public Computing
Lines: 42

In article <1991Apr10.093946.22779@allgfx.agi.oz> tkav@allgfx.agi.oz (Tony Kavadias) writes:
>This is too much!
>
>I looked at my system folder one day and I thought "Apple made a system folder
>for a reason - why are programs like PageMaker, Stuffit Classic, Excel, Word,
>and hundreds of others all putting APPLICATION SPECIFIC files into a folder
>which is designed for GLOBAL use????!!!!"  I see preferences files all over
>the place in an ever-crowding folder.

[lots of ranting deleted]
>
>I mean, Apple did not develop the system folder for all your garbage!

They didn't *develop* it for that, no, but they do tell us that it's
the place to be for up-'n'-coming preferences files to be stored.
Picture this situation: an application sits in a directory on an
AppleShare volume that's write-protected.  Application tries to create
prefs file in its own directory.  Application fails due to
write-protection.  Hmmm.  In order to guard against this sort of
thing, Apple tells developers to put their preferences files in the
System Folder on the system disk.

Seeing tons of preference files in the System folder can be
irritating, I agree, but they had to go somewhere, after all, and the
only thing you can count on when figuring out where to put them is
that there's probably a a System Folder on the system disk, whose
dirID you can easily get using SysEnvirons.  (Unless, of course, you'd
rather just put them all out on the desktop....)

Anyway, System 7 has a folder manager and a designated folder within
the System Folder to hold preferences files (some programs, like
Stuffit Deluxe, already use this folder and create it if it doesn't
exist).  This should cut down on your frustration.

>Tony Kavadias			|   "I've always known,



-- 
David Walton            Internet: dwal@midway.uchicago.edu
University of Chicago   {  Any opinions found herein are mine, not  }
Computing Organizations {  those of my employers (or anybody else). }