Re: System 6 & HFS Volumes

[dempson@swell.actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

In article <2h96fv$l45@condor.ic.net> platkus@iunet (Shawn Platkus) writes:
> 
> I've noticed a Quirk | Bug | or at least something to be aware of in
> System 6.  I'm running 6.0.1, and I have a Fujitsu 128 MB Magneto
> Optical 3.5" drive. 
> I formatted one of my disk as HFS, and named the volume: 
> Graphics / Sound / Music
> Well, that is a legal filename for HFS, and everthing seemed to be
> working fine.  Then once when I doubled clicked on a SHR screen
> graphics file to load Platinum Paint and open the file, it launched
> Platinum Paint fine, but the picture didn't open.  Same thing for
> shrinkit archives, and same for all files.  The application would
> launch, but the data file wouldn't be opened. 

You'll probably find that the files can be opened as long as you use
the Standard File dialog to open them once you are in the application.

I can explain why these programs don't work properly if there is a
slash in the volume name.

When you double-click on a document icon in Finder, it stores a
message in the 'MessageCenter' facility of the toolbox.  This message
contains an indication of whether you chose Open (or double-clicked),
or Print.  It also lists all of the icons which were selected, by
giving their full pathnames.

The catch is that the pathnames use slash characters to separate the
components.  When this pathname is passed back to GS/OS, it will
interpret the slashes in the volume name as separators between
directories, and the file will not be found.

System 6.0 added a second message which uses colons to separate the
pathname components.  Applications which are "System 6 aware" should
use this message if possible, because it allows you to use slashes in
filenames (and have pathnames longer than 255 characters).

It sounds like Platinum Paint and ShrinkIt GS are not using the
revised message, and neither is any of the other programs you've tried.

I just tried HyperCard IIgs 1.1, and it doesn't handle it either.
SynthLAB appears not to support direct loading from Finder, and I
can't think of any other new enough applications which might handle it
properly.

I'll whip up a quick change to one of my applications and see if will
work at all.

> So, I don't know if this has been mentioned before, but you might
> want to be aware of this when naming HFS volumes.

The same problem will occur if you use a slash character in a
directory name or filename.
-- 
David Empson                                                               
dempson@swell.actrix.gen.nz                                                
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand