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From: wjb@tantalum.eds.com (Bill Biesty)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: Misuse of the system folder...
Summary: dealing with the limitations of the system
Message-ID: <1991Apr10.161943.7129@edsr.eds.com>
Date: 10 Apr 91 16:19:43 GMT
References: <1991Apr10.093946.22779@allgfx.agi.oz>
Sender: usenet@edsr.eds.com
Organization: EDS Research, Albuquerque, NM
Lines: 41

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.
[...other stuff deleted...]

Because the system folder is the only one guaranteed to exist.  There are no links
in < 7.0, no environment variables like in unix that tell an app where its stuff is.
So it has to go somewhere that the application can find it relaibly.  The exception
to this is ThinkC (I think) and it gets away with it by requiring everything it needs
to be below it in the file hierarchy.

->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!!!
->
->There are a couple of suggestions which I would like to offer...
->
->     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.

Folders are a good idea, but not the best idea.
See above about UNIX environment variables and links.

->
->     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.

Nah.  Some people lock their applications to prevent deletion and virus attacks.
Locking prevents modification.  Prefs files are the way to go.

[...other stuff deleted...]

->Tony Kavadias			|   "I've always known,
->Melbourne, Australia.		|    I'll never die alone."