Re: FinderExtras Folder

[David A Lyons <dlyons@apple.com>]

In article <phandel.2s73@sempco.uucp> Peter Handel,
phandel@sempco.uucp writes:
> I heard from someone that it's VERY unsafe to put stuff in the
FinderExtras
> folder instead of just dumping it into the System.Setup dir.

There is indeed one way you can cause a problem.  Files in
Finder.Extras are forcibly unloaded when the Finder exits.

The Finder loads both Finder Extensions *and* "permanent inits" from
Finder.Extras; for certain items, the user can choose which folder to
use, making the trade-off between RAM use while outside the Finder,
and time taken to re-load each time the Finder starts.

If a permanent-init attaches itself to the system in any way -other-
than a SendRequest procedure (toolbox patch, interrupt routine, Run
Queue task, etc), then it had better respond to a srqGoAway request,
or you can't put it into Finder.Extras.  This is documented in the
Programmer's Reference For System 6.0.

In hindsight, it would have been less confusing to load only Finder
Extensions from Finder.Extras, and force users to change the filetype
if they wanted to put a permanent-init into Finder.Extras.

Dave Lyons
Mr Tangent