Re: [toolbox] aliases vs. paths (was: Extended Attributes)

[Maxwell, A. R <ada...@pn...>]

On Jul 6, 2005, at 08:16, Jon Guyer wrote:

>
> On Jul 6, 2005, at 10:18 AM, J=E9r=F4me Laurens wrote:
>
>
>> What will happen if I duplicate a file, for example by copying it =20
>> on a USB memory key, then copy it on my home computer, then copy =20
>> it back. What is the location pointed to by the alias? It might be =20=

>> consistent but not correct.
>> This is an example where the path can be correct but the alias can =20=

>> be broken.
>> On the other hand, changing a file name will break the stored path =20=

>> but not the alias.
>>
>
> Aliases can be relative <http://developer.apple.com/samplecode/=20
> resolveRelativeAlias/resolveRelativeAlias.html>

Or if you don't grok Pascal (or whatever that sample is :)...

<http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/=20
BPFileSystem/Concepts/Aliases.html> has some info on relative paths =20
vs. aliases.

If you're using Cocoa, BDAlias is useful for working with aliases and =20=

paths, especially for serializing aliases: <http://bdistributed.com/=20
Projects/BDAlias/>.

My own view is that hard-coded paths in plists and code are evil, =20
whether they are paths to a recent file, Application Support, =20
Preferences, or a temp directory.

-- Adam