Re: Icons of program

[raster redhat com]

On 22 Apr, Russell Nelson shouted:
->   > ->  > Okay, the list mentioned the four distinct ways to handle per-file
->   > ->  > info:
->   > ->  >
->   > ->  > 1) single, big file somewhere in the user's home directory
->   > ->  > 2) single, big system-wide file (handled with a daemon)
->   > ->  > 3) small files in a separate tree in the user's home directory
->   > ->  > 4) small files in the same dir as the files they affect
->  
->  5) icon information embedded in the file.
->  
->  + low inode cost
->  + no problems with file manager tools
->  + no permissions problems
->  + no filesystem dependencies
->  + works with standard file transfer protocols
->  + works with removable filesystems
->  + no centralized administration needed
->  + works just fine on a per-user basis.
->  + no db to corrupt
->  ------------- (it's a big minus) files which need per-file info must
->                embed that information into the file.  Works fine for
->                any file format that permits comments.  Loses for all
->                others, or or files that don't have a magic number or
->                extension.

and this minus basically rules it out. :( Well for me it does.

->   > *  we have to accept cp, mv, rm etc. are NOt goign to deal wlll with ANY
->   > icon system we use that has any power at all.
->  
->  Okay, raster, man, either you are wrong, or you feel that my #5 has no 
->  power at all (I'll let you pick).

no 5. is so bad it isn't funny. sorry - nothing perosnal - its
technical merits are, form my view, zero. it means changing the file
format of EVERY file on a system (in theory) whcih canot be done - I
can start throwing PILES of formats that simply won't be able to do it.
It means alientation formats..and formats that can do it have to then
be edited like an icon file. you have to have tools to embed icons in
the file.. thew mac fs embeds this in the fs so by defrault you load
the file data unless you chose the correct fork to get icon info etc.
Macos did this and made it portable for all formats, but that is not an
option for us. so to have this extra infomration we have to keep it in
a separate file so it won't screw up the format.. :( if we were
building a whole OS (fs , kernle and up) we coudl do it better, but we
aren't - so we can't have utpoia.. :(

-- 
--------------- Codito, ergo sum - "I code, therefore I am" --------------------
raster@rasterman.com       /\___ /\ ___/||\___ ____/|/\___  raster@redhat.com
Carsten Haitzler           | _ //__\\ __||_ __\\ ___|| _ /  Red Hat Advanced
218/21 Conner Drive        || // __ \\_ \ | |   \ _/_|| /   Development Labs
Chapel Hill NC 27514 USA   ||\\\/  \//__/ |_|   /___/||\\   919 547 0012 ext 282
+1 (919) 929 9443, 801 4392   For pure Enlightenmenthttp://www.rasterman.com/