[R-SIG-Mac].Rprofile in 1.3.1 (os 10.1)

[Thomas Lumley]

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