User talk:Guy Harris/Archives/2018/01

symbolic links

To the user, a "symbolic link" is a link to a file name.
To the user, a "shortcut" under Microsoft is a link to a file name.
The implementation may be different, but to the user the function is exactly the same. It makes no difference to the user how it is implemented.
Hard links available under Unix/Linux can be differentiated by the user, since hard linked files must be on the same partition and hard linked files occupy the same space, both aspects readily discernable by the user.
So tables on Wikipedia should reflect this : a "shortcut" to the user IS a "symbolic link"
What a particular system chooses to call a feature is irrelevant.

I suggest you revert your reversion of my correction.
André437 (talk) 23:51, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

@André437:

The implementation may be different, but to the user the function is exactly the same.

It makes no difference to the user how it is implemented.

That depends on the user.

Transcript from Windows 7:

   Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
    Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.
   
    C:\Users\Guy Harris>cd Desktop
   
    C:\Users\Guy Harris\Desktop>dir
    Volume in drive C has no label.
    Volume Serial Number is 9495-943B
   
    Directory of C:\Users\Guy Harris\Desktop
   
    01/03/2018  05:26 PM    <DIR>          .
    01/03/2018  05:26 PM    <DIR>          ..

...

    01/03/2018  05:23 PM               912 shortcut_to_textfile.lnk
    01/03/2018  05:26 PM    <SYMLINK>      symbolic_link_to_textfile.txt [textfile.txt]
    01/03/2018  05:22 PM                20 textfile.txt
                 11 File(s)        969,573 bytes
                  5 Dir(s)  27,075,354,624 bytes free
   
    C:\Users\Guy Harris\Desktop>type textfile.txt
    This is a text file.
    C:\Users\Guy Harris\Desktop>type symbolic_link_to_textfile.txt
    This is a text file.
    C:\Users\Guy Harris\Desktop>type shortcut_to_textfile.lnk
    L   ☺¶☻     └      F     ►₧3é·ä╙☺M└:é·ä╙☺M└:é·ä╙☺¶       ☺               d b 2 ¶
      $L╘
     textfile.txt   ♦ ∩╛$L╘
    $L╘
   *   g<   ┘               t e x t f i l e . t x t   ∟   }   ∟   ♥   ∟   -   8   ]
      ◄   ♥   ;öòö►    C:\Users\  %   ☻   ¶         ☻ \\WINDOWS7\Users Guy Harris\D
    esktop\textfile.txt ♫ . \ t e x t f i l e . t x t ← C : \ U s e r s \ G u y   H
    a r r i s \ D e s k t o p º☺      á╡   1SPS0±%╖∩G

So a command-line user will, for example, definitely see a difference; CreateFile() follows symbolic links, as they're implemented at the file system level, below the Windows API, but it won't follow shortcuts, because, at the file system level, they're just implemented as ordinary files. At the shell level (GUI shell, not command-line shell), Windows Explorer, and the file dialog boxes, handle .lnk files specially, following them and then having the underlying program open the file to which the shortcut points; however, if you do

   C:\Users\Guy Harris\Desktop>notepad.exe shortcut_to_textfile.lnk

from the command line, Notepad shows you the same crap that type textfile.txt does, not the text in the file to which it points.

So 1) at least if they're using the command line, the function is not exactly the same and 2) the article isn't about all the layers of software the end-user deals with from the GUI, it's about the file system layer - file system APIs and the implementation of the file system under that API.

Thus, the correct thing for the article to do is to treat as symbolic links only things that are transparent to the default "open file" APIs, not stuff that looks like a plain file to those APIs and only points to other files from the standpoint of APIs well above the file system APIs. Guy Harris (talk) 01:44, 4 January 2018 (UTC)

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Mac OS X

Thanks for this, I was going to come back around to fix that once I realized I had it wrong, but I got distracted by doing some further research, because it still didn't seem right to me based on my memory. As it turns out, the real name of the operating system, if you were to have looked at Apple's web site when it came out, was actually "Mac OS X v10.2 Jaguar"... there's a "v" in there! They did that with 10.1 as well. But not consistently.... it was common in the 10.0 - 10.2 period for it to be written out like "Mac OS X version 10.1" as well. — Warren. ‘ talk , 04:08, 22 January 2018 (UTC)

@Warren: You're expecting consistency in naming from Apple marketing? :-) Guy Harris (talk) 04:44, 22 January 2018 (UTC)

Oh man... no way, haha. They're so much better at it nowadays. Whenever people are like "Isn't having an iPhone 8 and X painting themselves into a corner naming-wise?".... that's nothing, people, do you have any idea how hilariously bad their naming schemes were back in the day. Literally the only company I can think of that releases a computer, then renames it two months later without changing the specs. Why? Because ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. — Warren. ‘ talk , 02:26, 23 January 2018 (UTC)