Re: #2654 / dummy !runimage to date an app directory

Tony Moore wrote:
>> In RISC OS, if a directory is copied, its original datestamp is loat,
>> however if a !Runimage is present then the application directory shows
>> the datestamp of the !Runimage, thus preserving the datestamp of the
>> original full-save.

David Pitt wrote on 18 Mar:
> Is this with VRPC?

Not VRPC per se -- depends on the version of RiscOS.

I haven't got Ro 4.39 to hand at the moment to check, but I think that
in the Ro 4 *desktop* when you move a directory its datestamp gets
changed, but if in Configure Filer you switch off "interactive file
operations" before doing the move (maybe also if you use *copy on the
commandline) the datestamp is preserved. At least I remember using
this switch-off-interactive trick in the past to keep datestamps.

In Ro 5, however, a directory's datestamp seems to be preserved if you
move the directory in the normal desktop way.

Can't speak for Ro 6; haven't got it. Obviously VRPC uses 4 or 6.

Application directories, however, are special. In any version of
RiscOS an app dir takes its date from the !Runimage within it. If
there is no !Runimage its datestamp behaviour is like any other dir.

Thus in the case of an app without a !Runimage, it's a useful trick to
stick a dummy !Runimage inside the app directory for the sole purpose
of producing a meaningful datestamp on the outer directory, so that
the user can easily tell one version of the app from another.

One example is the !PS3 driver, where John Tytgat and Martin Wuerthner
have followed exactly that suggestion.

So it makes sense in the case of the Netsurf "Full save" too, for the
sake of users of (apparently) some versions of the OS.


--
Jim Nagel www.archivemag.co.uk