Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!oberon!cit-vax!tybalt.caltech.edu!wetter
From: wetter@tybalt.caltech.edu (Pierce T. Wetter)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Full path name of a file
Message-ID: <6464@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: 8 May 88 19:36:48 GMT
References: <2532@chalmers.UUCP> <301@piring.cwi.nl> <304@piring.cwi.nl>
Sender: news@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu
Reply-To: wetter@tybalt.caltech.edu.UUCP (Pierce T. Wetter)
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Lines: 26

>it doesn't and needn't check.  However, this poses an ethical problem if
>you are constructing full pathnames: my code simply bombs if it would
>construct a pathname >255 bytes, and if I increased the buffer size, the
>resulting pathnames are useless except for documentation purposes (since
>the file system can't have string parameters >255 bytes).

  I'm assuming you have some special file your application needs to look at
which for some reason you don't want to save with your application in the
data fork. You want this file to be located somewhere other then the same
folder as the application or the system folder.
  
   Two ways to do this: If you can't find the file put up an sfgetfile box
and ask the user where it is. Then save the pathname in a str resource. If its
longer then 255 bytes, your application will just keep making the user find
it each time.

  Or, if the pathname is longer then 255 bytes, save it in pieces and wander
down the heiarchy each time you need to find the file.

Pierce Wetter.


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wetter@tybalt.caltech.edu     Race For Space Grand Prize Winner.
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   Useless Advice #986: Never sit on a Tack.