OS X Still Sucks in So Many Ways
I just recently came across this message in the Finder when I tried to rename a running application:
Are you sure you want to change the name of <appname> while it is open?
Changing the name of an application while it’s open may cause problems with the application.
This is caused by the same problem experienced in ScreenSaver: if you change the name of, or move, the folder of pictures to which ScreenSaver is pointing, it will lose track of it.
Both of these problems happen because Mac OS X dicourages the use of Aliases, system-standard data structures for referring to file system objects. Instead, applications are encouraged to use path names. The problem with a path name is that it’s fragile: if you move the item or change its name or the name of any of it’s enclosing directories, an extant path no longer points to that item.
