🚀 go-pugleaf

As quoted from <8821@spool.cs.wisc.edu> by tonyrich@titanic.cs.wisc.edu (Anthony Rich):
+---------------
| whether it has been compressed, and the like.  It's not unusual to see
| files with cryptic names like "xmodem17.hqx".  Filenames aren't the right
+---------------

Most of these files are so named because they are often stored on or used by
programs intended for different systems:  for example, OzTeX keeps the *.tex
naming convention because the TeX copyleft requires that a TeX pass the "trip
test" and this is undoubtedly part of the test, and *.hqx is because BinHex
files are intended for storage on Unix or VMS systems which don't have
"Get Info..." boxes.  Standard Mac programs which use this convention,
however, should be regarded as violating the User Interface Guidelines.

+---------------
| programs or scripts which *reliably* find and process groups of related
| files.  The mechanism may defeat the goal.
+---------------

See above.  The change doesn't have to be made to the System or Finder, but to
the User Interface Guidelines.  And anyone who uses a method not compatible
with StdFile to get their file names (e.g. file extensions) deserves what they
get.

+---------------
| 1.  Allow ANY combination of items of the system-stored file info to be
| 	displayed on the desktop in some kind of compact, legible format.
+---------------

How slow do you want the Finder to be, anyway?  Remember, the display format
is stored on a per-folder basis.  Having to compute an arbitrary display
format upon folder open of a large folder (say, the blessed folder) is going
to bog down even a IIci.

+---------------
| One last wish.  Normally, when one tries to copy a file into a folder that
| already has a file by that name, an alert asks "Replace item(s) with the
| same name?"  Clicking "NO" aborts the operation.  But if managed system
| info like *file version numbers* are always user-visible, the Finder can do
| a better job.  If the version numbers differ, the operation should complete
| normally, since there really isn't a conflict!  If the version numbers are
+---------------

NO!!!!!!!!

This requires that version numbers or the other distinguishing information be
visible, or the user is going to get extremely confused.  Are the concepts
behind the User Interface Guidelines now considered Politically Incorrect?

You might also consider that DEC operating systems have traditionally
supported version numbers.  I haven't missed them under Unix *or* Macintosh.

In this particular case, the file name is where the distinguishing information
*should* go.  I don't want to be forced to open some special window
(option-click within StdFile or etc.) to be able to distinguish between two
or more files with the same name.

Your suggestions are well intended, but will turn the Mac into another ugly
user-hostile environment.

+---------------
| If not, I'll bet we're right back to cryptic, nonstandard MS-DOS naming
| conventions, and we'll severely undermine the usefulness of a command-line
| interface or scripting capability.
+---------------

The User Interface Guidelines are quite sufficient to prevent this, since
users given a choice between a StdFile-compatible interface and 8.3[;ver] are
going to choose the former.

Let's not cure a hangnail by amputation, eh?

++Brandon
-- 
Brandon S. Allbery, moderator of comp.sources.misc	     allbery@NCoast.ORG
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