Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ukma!vlsi!ulkyvx.bitnet!jnsims01
From: jnsims01@ulkyvx.bitnet
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: Misuse of the system folder...
Message-ID: <1991Apr11.092058.77@ulkyvx.bitnet>
Date: 11 Apr 91 09:20:57 GMT
References: <1991Apr10.093946.22779@allgfx.agi.oz>
Organization: University of Louisville
Lines: 32

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.

At the risk of putting my foot in it, I understood that this isn't a bug, it is
a feature. By saving the preferences for a particular application in the system
file of the particular machine from which the application was started. Hence,
Joe User at his Mac starts an application located on the network server, and
his particular preferences are saved at his machine, rather than at the server
where they would be overwritten by the next net-user's preferences. The system
folder was chosen as the repository since that is the *only* folder that the
application can be sure is present on every Mac on the net. Granted, Claris has
chosen an even-more-elegant solution by putting their preferences in a
folder-within-a-folder, but the principle remains the same.

This may not be the real reason, but it makes sense. I'd be interested in
whether anyone can confirm or deny this guess.

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* John Norman Sims, Jr.                 *      BITNET: JNSIMS01@ULKYVM *
* University of Louisville              *              JNSIMS01@ULKYVX *
* Computing and Telecommunications      *       Voice:  (502) 588-5565 *
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