.Rprofile in 1.3.1 (os 10.1)
On Sun, 11 Nov 2001, David A Richmond wrote:
On Sun, 11 Nov 2001 MacStats@mac.com wrote:
On 10 Nov 2001 20:12:18 -0500, David A Richmond wrote:
1) OS 10.1 doesn't let you name files that begin with a period '.' in the Finder, or save them in programs such as BBedit. The only way to create a file that begins with a period is to use the command line. (i.e. use Terminal, and use the mv command: "mv filename .filename")
Under Mac OS 1/4/6/7/9, the ".file" form has a special meaning -- it means a device driver. So a Carbonized program like BBEdit would assume this is a driver. You should report this to BareBones, it's easy enough to fix if they know where to look.
It's not just bbedit, it seems to be pervasive; programs like BBedit and Appleworks will dim and disable the save button when the filename begins with a '.', TextEdit will let you click "save" but will then inform you that you can't use the name. The Finder does a similar thing.
According to an article at ArsTechnica http://arstechnica.com/reviews/01q3/metadata/metadata-1.html Apple is pushing hard for the Windows approach to file extensions -- all files should have an extension that matches the file type. This is not going to coexist happily with Unix hidden files, so I don't know what the ideal solution is. Perhaps .Rprofile should be an extension for profiles, giving file names like my.Rprofile? -thomas