Re: Changing file & directory names

FROM : Dean Snyder
DATE : Sat Jul 01 21:28:57 2006

Sherm Pendley wrote at 2:15 PM on Saturday, July 1, 2006:

>> "If source is a file, the method creates a file at destination that
>> holds the exact contents of the original file and then deletes the
>> original file. If source is a directory, movePath:toPath:handler:
>> creates a new directory at destination and recursively populates it 
>> with
>> duplicates of the files and directories contained in source."
>>
>> This is really heavyweight

>
>No, it's not heavy at all - you've just misunderstood what it does. 
>When the above says "creates a file at destination", it's talking 
>about creating a new directory entry that points to the same data, 
>not about copying the data.


Again, with emphasis added, the documentation says, "creates a file at
destination that holds the exact contents of the original file and THEN
deletes the original file". That can only mean that at some point there
are 2 copies of the file. (Notice there is no talk of just manipulating
file references within the file manager's data structures.) That may
not, in fact, be what it does, but that IS what the documentation says
it does. And, of course, the issue is compounded when dealing with
directories (where the documentation actually talks about "duplicates of
the files and directories").


Dean A. Snyder

Manager, Digital Hammurabi Project
Computer Science Department, Whiting School of Engineering
218C New Engineering Building, 3400 North Charles Street
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, Maryland, USA 21218

cell: 717 817-4897
www.jhu.edu/digitalhammurabi/