Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnewsk!ech From: ech@cbnewsk.ATT.COM (ned.horvath) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer Subject: Re: File Manager question Message-ID: <872@cbnewsk.ATT.COM> Date: 19 Aug 89 17:28:18 GMT References: <1437@draken.nada.kth.se> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 23 In article <8334@hoptoad.uucp> tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney) writes: [ABout saving prefs in App folder or System folder] >The system folder solution is the one everyone else uses, so you really >ought to do the same to avoid confusing the user. From article <1437@draken.nada.kth.se>, by d88-jwa@nada.kth.se (All this was brought to you by h+@nada.kth.se Replys via email welcome!): > Well, actually, no it isn't. AppleScan, for instance, save prefs in the > Application folder, so far as I have noticed. I've seen this once or > twice in other Apple-ications as well... There are two issues: keep conceptually "read only" files -- thesaurus and dictionary if you're a WP, "toolkits" if you're doing CAD, Host files if you're communications, etc. -- in the application folder. That folder is easy to find, just do a "GetVol" at launch time and remember the vRefNum. However, despite the ugly fact that the System Folder is already too damned big, preference files are writeable (by definition), and the blessed folder is the only reliably safe place to put them. This is particularly important in network environments, where we can share multilaunched apps (and associated resource files), but have to retain separate preference files and documents. =Ned Horvath=