tech.lgbt is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
We welcome all marginalized identities. This Mastodon instance is generally for folks who are LGBTQIA+ and Allies with an interest in tech work, academics, or technology in general.

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getting fired from apple for printing out little pieces of paper that say ".DS_Store" and leaving them everywhere

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@chrisisgr8 oh no, it’s Desktop Services Storage

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@chrisisgr8 @aardvark The Macintosh Finder UI has always depended on storing info that tells it how to draw file and folder icons and how/where to draw Finder windows when they are reopened. There have been various places over the decades where that info is stored: FinderInfo in the file systems (now that is an extended attribute in file systems), desktop files, the Desktop Manager (and it's desktop database files), “Icon<cr>” files, the LaunchServices database, and .DS_Store files.

Every mechanism used tends to be visible on some filesystems (mostly non-Apple filesystems) because those filesystems don't provide anywhere to stuff that information other than a file.

Even making those files invisible is difficult when a filesystem is mounted on a non-Apple OS because different OSs have different mechanisms for making files hidden.

🤷‍♂️

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@chrisisgr8 @aardvark Oh yeah, Desktop Services is the non-UI part of the Finder code. Its functionality is also used by other parts of macOS - open/save UI, migration assistant, etc.

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@jimluther @chrisisgr8 @aardvark If it weren’t for the fact that Spatial Finder is still (poorly) supported on modern macOS, would we even need .DS_Store files any more?

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@chrisisgr8 @jimluther that’s a picture celebrating John Sculley, captioned using words he once infamously spoke to a system software engineer right before entering what was going to be a long slog of a beta to get it out the door.