Re: The whole resource controversy resolved at last!!

[uerics@mcl.ucsb.edu (Eric D. Shepherd)]

In <jmk3.737101149@crux1.cit.cornell.edu> jmk3@crux3.cit.cornell.edu (Jay Krell) writes:

>>I have a surprisingly simple solution to the controversy:
>>
>>If you don't like resources, don't use them.
>>If you do like resources, use them.
> 
>That doesn't help users.

Sigh.  I knew I should have said anything.

I don't see what users have to do with it, aside from providing the
ability for them to modify, in a minor way, the way an application
functions by using resources.  I see it as almost entirely an issue of the
programmer's preference, which was the point I was trying to make.

There are some very minor user-related issues involved, but I don't see
them as being significant enough to detract from the simple fact that many
programmers (and programs) find resources to be incredibly useful.  So in
those cases, why not use them?  Especially considering that anybody with a
IIGS should have no problem copying and otherwise manipulating files with
resource forks.  If an 8-bit user wants to do so, I admit, there is a
problem.

But that's not the issue, as I see it.  I'm more concerned about the
usefulness of resources as a programming tool and as a way for users to
customize software without making it so easy to do so that no two people
have the same program.

I believe that resource files were implemented in more or less the best
fashion possible, while retaining maximum compatibility with the ProDOS
filing system.  The Resource Manager is a bit on the screwy side, but,
again, it's not bad, and once you get the hang of it, it works very well
-- and I assume it's designed to function similarly to the Mac Resource
Manager (although I couldn't say for sure, having never used resources on
the Mac).


>--
>  --Jay, jay.krell@cornell.edu
--
Eric D. Shepherd                   | Apple II Alliance Charter Member
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