Re: [toolbox] Extended Attributes

[Maarten S. <maa...@xs...>]

On 2 Jul 2005, at 19:26, Maarten Sneep wrote:

> On 2 Jul 2005, at 19:03, Jon Guyer wrote:
>
>> On Jul 2, 2005, at 4:36 AM, J=E9r=F4me Laurens wrote:
>>
>>> I am very surprised! How can BBEdit track changes in file names =20
>>> while not being open.
>>> Did they patch the system? I would not be surprised if they use =20
>>> in fact resource forks...
>>
>> They almost certainly use aliases. Aliases are such a vastly =20
>> superior technology to unix symbolic links that  it's not even funny.
>
> I'll try to find the note in the release notes. I'll also try to =20
> find the external storage location. Be patient, I'll get back to =20
> you. IIRC, they use a property list representing a dictionary, with =20=

> aliases as the key. I might be mistaken though, please hold.

They changed the system in BBEdit 8.0: http://www.barebones.com/=20
support/bbedit/arch_bbedit80.shtml

To quote the relevant bits:

BBEdit no longer saves document state in the resource fork of the =20
document's file. This has a number of advantages, including (but not =20
necessarily limited to): no longer creating resource forks to save =20
document state, better compatibility with source-control systems, and =20=

easier personalization (your changes don't affect other users of =20
shared files).

Saved document states are forgotten 14 days after the last access, so =20=

the saved-state storage won't grow unbounded.

Note that no distinction is made between saved-state formats; the old =20=

"MPW" and "BBEdit" state settings are gone. You can control whether =20
BBEdit saves document states by means of the "Save Document State" =20
switch in the Text Files: Saving preferences.

The "State" preferences have been consigned to the dustbin of =20
history. Settings which control how (or if) BBEdit honors saved state =20=

are now in the "Text Files: Opening" preferences.

(end quote)

For some setting you *do* want others to be affected: text encoding =20
comes to mind (although I can't recall if that was ever stored in the =20=

document state).

The information is stored in "~/Library/Preferences/=20
com.barebones.bbedit.PreferenceData/Document State.plist" (and a =20
similar location for TextWrangler). =46rom a cursory view of the =20
property list, it seems there are no aliases in this file. I can tell =20=

it is robust, but I can't tell how they did this.

Maarten=