Mozilla email and zero byte files

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And neither of us know which case is which?
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Yep :(
Did I ever tell you of the time I P/W protected/locked a large
directory tree which contained, er, my P/W locking app?

How I larfed :-)
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Well, I'll tell tell my real life story about learning from mistakes,
and then I promise to quit this O.T. stuff.

After I retired, I worked for a time as a substitute schoolbus driver
.... something I cannot recommend any more than I recommend fathering
daughters.

The only kids I really enjoyed were the kindergardenders. On this one
route, I had little Jonathan ... a incorrigible "bad boy" whom his
regular driver would reward with a little smiley sticker each time he
rode the bus without getting into trouble.

One day, I heard a little girl screach. I glanced in the mirror and
saw her and little Jonathon seated behind her. I asked what happened,
and the girl claimed that Jonathon pulled her hair. I asked very
sternly, "Jonathon, did you do that?!!" Jonathon replied, "I made a
mistake". I said, "Yesss??" And Jonathon said, "Well, you learn from
your mistakes, Art"

:)


Art
http://www.epix.net/~artnpeg
 
Anyway, it's definitely poor software design practice to create a app
dependent on zero byte files for proper functioning.
Click to expand...

Zero-length files are sometimes used a semaphores, and sometimes as status
indicators. The information is in the existence of the file.

That's not poor design.
 
Zero-length files are sometimes used a semaphores, and sometimes as status
indicators. The information is in the existence of the file.

That's not poor design.
Click to expand...

But it is for the reason I've already stated. Most zero byte files
that accumulate on a drive are useless debris. A user has no way to
tell which ones are actually needed by a poorly designed program and
which ones are useless debris.


Art
http://www.epix.net/~artnpeg
 
Did I ever tell you of the time I P/W protected/locked a large
directory tree which contained, er, my P/W locking app?
Click to expand...
How I larfed :-)
Click to expand...

That reminds me of a password protected screen saver I
installed. Installed fine. When I entered the password to gain
access to my system it didn't work. :-(
 
And said:
How do you know what you're doing? :) Why would you allow
superfulous zero byte files to accumulate on your drive?
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How do you know they are superflous? After all, you've
demonstrated tht they are NOT.

It's called LEARNING. YOu should try it.


--
:-) Christopher Jahn
:-(

http://home.comcast.net/~xjahn/Main.html

It would seem that no matter how you slice it, it still comes
up
Velveeta.
 
And said:
So I found out the hard way. And I'm leaning toward the
idea that such software is carelessly designed since you
never know in advance whether or not it's safe to delete
the zero byte files produced.
Click to expand...

As previously stated, it is never safe to delete a zero-byte
file simply because it is zero-bytes.

It's not a "design flaw" simply because you don't know what
you're doing.



--
:-) Christopher Jahn
:-(

http://home.comcast.net/~xjahn/Main.html

It would seem that no matter how you slice it, it still comes
up
Velveeta.
 
(e-mail address removed) wrote:

[SNIP]
No. You should learn to understand that in most cases they are merely
useless debris, and any app that uses them is poorly desgined.
Click to expand...
No, it isn't. Zero-length files are often used in a simple semaphore
mechanism. Very effective and very low overhead.

Cheers,
Gary B-)
 
And said:
Nope. You are obviously the one who needs a clue.
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No, I am someone who knows that null files are often used as
semaphores or status markers. At least two other people have
mentioned this, and at least three have pointed out that it is
NOT considered a good idea to delete these files unless you
know what they are.

When you are a software engineer, then you can comment on what
is and isn't proper coding. As a rank neophyte user, you do
not have a leg to stand on.

--
:-) Christopher Jahn
:-(

http://home.comcast.net/~xjahn/Main.html

Mind your own business, Spock. I'm sick of your half-breed
interference.
 
No, I am someone who knows that null files are often used as
semaphores or status markers. At least two other people have
mentioned this, and at least three have pointed out that it is
NOT considered a good idea to delete these files unless you
know what they are.

When you are a software engineer, then you can comment on what
is and isn't proper coding. As a rank neophyte user, you do
not have a leg to stand on.
Click to expand...

LOL! I was probably coding before you were born, dimwit. And I'm far
from a neophye user. Why don't you just crawl back into your hole. And
learn some good programming practices.


Art
http://www.epix.net/~artnpeg
 
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