Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!dalcs!aucs!peter
From: peter@aucs.UUCP (Peter Steele)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: 'Virtual' Folders - good idea!!
Message-ID: <1124@aucs.UUCP>
Date: 20 Jun 88 12:05:04 GMT
References: <5191@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Organization: School of Computer Science, Acadia Univ., Nova Scotia
Lines: 26

> But why even use virtual folders?  Why not use true folders?  The system
> could look for cdevs in a cdev folder, inits in an inits folder, etc.  Of
> course, to keep compatibility the system should also look in the system
> folder itself - this way people who don't know about this feature won't get
> stung by it.  But, for people who know this could save substantial amounts
> of time when using either the control panel, chooser, etc.  There's no
> reason why the system folder itself has to have tons of files in it.  All it
> would take is a simple  modification to INIT31, the Chooser, and the Control
> Panel.

I've always felt that when Apple introduced the HFS, they should have had
some user interface guidelines to go along with the new feature. For example,
instead of just dumping everything in the system folder, recommend to
developers that they create a folder in the system folder for storing
things like help files and dictionaries (and possibly even have sub-folders
within these for storing things like temp files--I hate all these Word Temp
files cluttering things up). And of course, as suggested above, there
should *obviously* be folders for INITs, cdevs, fonts, etc. I see no need
to reinvent the "virtual folder"--intelligent use of the exiting true
folder would suffice much better.

-- 
Peter Steele, Microcomputer Applications Analyst
Acadia University, Wolfville, NS, Canada B0P1X0 (902)542-2201x121
UUCP: {uunet|watmath|utai|garfield}dalcs!aucs!Peter
BITNET: Peter@Acadia  Internet: Peter%Acadia.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU