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Re: Logic used in ordering of dropped folderitems?

To: realbasic-nug at lists dot realsoftware dot com
Subject: Re: Logic used in ordering of dropped folderitems?
From: "Craig A. Finseth" <fin at finseth dot com>
Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 11:32:19 -0500 (CDT)
Cc: realbasic-nug at lists dot realsoftware dot com
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References: <mailman dot 3032 dot 1193790173 dot 262 dot realbasic-nug at lists dot realsoftware dot com> <225778B8-36E2-49AC-A67F-A766EEA6B596 at mindspring dot com> <1D7B2876-C16B-46A2-B5EB-77A85E3C0E49 at inspiringapps dot com> <E53C550D-F332-45CE-8AD4-487B6602BF62 at shaw dot ca> <A24921C6-9FBB-416D-BDD7-0769C80438C6 at declareSub dot com> <CC3A82A8-BFB4-4D81-9DB8-16926B4A96FA at shaw dot ca>
   > Unless you choose to sort items by date.

   But isn't that an option you have to select once the dialog is open?  
   How they are initially displayed appears to be alphabetically by name.

   Somehow, I don't think that it's as random as Joe says as it appeared  
   to the OP that they opened in the same order each time.

   Just as I don't think that adding files to folders rearranges their  
   order, just their appearance in the finder itself. Maybe it has more  
   to do with the order they were created on the drive? Just guessing  
   though.

In all Unix directories, files are added at the first open slot.  For
new directories, this means at the end.  If the directory has been
around and some files have been deleted, new files may be added into
the open slots.

So, when a program traverses a directory (e.g., with readdir), you get
the files in the order that they are in the directory.

Just about every utility in Unix sorts the names.  Ditto, of course,
for the Finder and other GUI-level views.

So, the order is random, sort of.  But you only notice this if you are
working at the program level.  As a user, you ar pretty much unaware
of the underlying order.

Craig
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