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Old December 17th 17, 01:48 AM posted to comp.sys.mac.system,alt.windows7.general,comp.sys.mac.apps
David Empson
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Posts: 10
Default Can a Macintosh person tell us how to change the name of a file?

nospam wrote:

In article , David
Empson wrote:

For further completeness:

Mac OS 9 and earlier used a similar AppleDouble structure to store Mac
files on foreign file systems, but they are arranged differently. Apple
chose to create a hidden directory called (misleadingly) RESOURCE.FRK
alongside the data fork file, and put the auxiliary file in there, with
the same name as the data fork file. As with Mac OS X, the file in the
RESOURCE.FRK directory _may_ include a resource fork, but it also
includes the Finder Informaiton.

This is probably where the false impression arose that the Finder
information was in the resource fork. It is actually separate, but
stored in the same file as the resource fork on a non-Mac file system.


the false impression of finder info being part of the resource fork
goes back to well before mac os 9.


Which part of "Mac OS 9 and earlier" did you not read?

I know that the the RESOURCE.FRK folder on foreign file systems dates at
least as far back as System 7.5 (1994), but as I didn't use Macs
regularly prior to that I don't have direct experience of when it was
introduced.

The Apple II technical notes documenting AppleSingle and AppleDouble
(which include Macintosh details) were written in March 1989 and last
updated in 1991 and 1990 respectively. The AppleDouble one doesn't
specify where the AppleDouble Header File (the non-data file) is
supposed to go (it suggests searching for the file or asking the user)
so the RESOURCE.FRK standard certainly wasn't established by 1990.

PC Exchange is likely to be the origin of the RESOURCE.FRK folder.
Wikipedia says it was introduced as a separate product in 1992, included
in System 7 Pro in 1993 and was part of the main system from System 7.5
in 1994.

Does anyone happen to know whether Apple File Exchange used the same
convention?

(I don't have my antique Mac developer documentation handy, nor do I
care enough to waste time digging through it looking for the details.)

--
David Empson

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