Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 02:08:53 -0000
From: EvangeList <evangelist@apple.com>
Subject: Tidbit - Aliases Versus Shortcuts

Keyword: Advocacy, Windows Daymares

This tidbit is from: 

John Horner

Here's a windows daymare for the list or whatever -- I haven't seen this 
listed in the Why Mac Is Better materials:

When I first saw the Windows '95 Desktop, (at work, of course!) I saw "My 
Computer" and assumed it was the hard disk, or C drive.

It isn't -- so, preferring to have all my drives on the desktop, I made 
shortcuts for the floppy disk, hard disk, CD-ROM and Jaz drive.

This works well enough when you're just dragging things to them, but when 
you work with them in File Open and File Save dialogs, the following 
Incredibly Stupid Thing happens:

You have a file, let's say it's called "Very Important Report.doc". You 
go to save it and the File Save Dialog opens, showing you those easy 
shortcuts to all your drives. You want to save it to your Jaz drive, so 
you click on the shortcut "Jaz Drive".

It opens up and you save -- but before you save, take a look at the 
filename -- you're saving a file called "Jaz Drive.lnk"!

For some reason, the shortcut's filename gets substituted for your 
filename.

Blink and you've missed it -- and if you /have/ missed it, you've haven't 
got a document called "Very Important Report.doc" any more, -- try doing 
one of those "but I know I wrote that report!" searches -- plus you've 
got a deeply-confused file that thinks it's a shortcut but isn't.

Also, shortcuts to drives aren't shortcuts to drives at all, they're 
shortcuts to drive /ID's/, so the day you come in and forget to turn your 
"D" drive on, the system just ignores it and maps the next drive it 
finds, which yesterday was "E", to that shortcut. Surprise! Your CD-ROM 
is now only available via your Jaz shortcut, and your Jaz shortcut is 
just an error message.

Compare this with a Mac Alias, which gives you sensible error messages 
when drives are switched off, and will cheerfully connect you to an 
previously-unconnected networked drive with just a brief sidestep in the 
File Save process...