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A caution on network-based aliases and the sidebar
Authored by: astrosmash on Nov 08, '07 07:32:33PM

It doesn't surprise me that the Finder sidebar dereferences aliases. Having written similar functionality in a Windows application a few years back, it's not terribly clear how aliases should be handled. You can make a case either way, and certainly there are lots of reasons why dereferencing an alias can make things easier for the user.

Of course, the big hint is that when you drag "Movies alias" to the sidebar it shows up as "Movies", and there's no Alias icon. Despite that, I think most people would expect "Rename" to rename only the link in the side bar, not the file itself. The UI is misleading.

And the there's the Dock, which does not dereference aliases. Oh, well.



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A caution on network-based aliases and the sidebar
Authored by: robg on Nov 08, '07 07:54:56PM

I guess my expectation is that an object in the sidebar is still in the Finder, and as such, it should follow the rules of the Finder. Aliases in the Finder are not dereferenced, yet that very same folder is dereferenced when placed in the sidebar.

Very weird.

-rob.



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