Packages (was: copy large files in Rev on Mac)

[Ian Wood]

On 6 Dec 2007, at 02:09, Chipp Walters wrote:

> Do you mean to tell me Apple now has files which are bundles, too? I  
> thought
> only apps were bundles. Sheesh, what a pain!

I beg to differ! Lost the original copy of that image in your Pages  
document? Right-click in the Finder to look inside the package and do  
a Spotlight search for Kind:Image. Etc.

Off the top of my head the list includes:
Pages documents and templates
Keynote documents and templates
iMovie themes, I don't use it enough to know if the docs are as well
iDVD docs and templates
iPhoto book/web templates
GarageBand docs

All of these consist of a package containing discrete media files and  
a bunch of XML files - as a developer I'd rather deal with that any  
day of the week over binary data.


Lastly, the one that's a big deal to me - Aperture.
Aperture has two primary levels of organisation the Library (a big  
package/bundle) which contains all the images you would deal with at a  
time, and Projects which are the main division within a Library.

The Library package contains:
A series of smart search presets (which you can add to),
The SQLite database that's used for fast(ish) metadata access,
Archiving info for the backup function,
A 'sub-package' for each Project.

Projects are self-contained within Aperture, so they can contain  
images, organisation structures such as sub-folders and smart albums  
(like smart folders in the Finder). All metadata etc. from the SQL  
database is also stored in XML files inside the package. You can  
import and export Projects via the GUI in Aperture, but if the worst  
comes to the worst you can simply grab them out of the Library package  
wholesale via the Finder or a CLI and import into Aperture on another  
computer.
It makes for a robust file structure that is pretty hard to break  
totally, vital when you're dealing with thousands of photographs.


> I'm sure Apple designed their file system to be able to handle such  
> thing
> using standard api calls. They must have-- is it a Rev issue?

Rev does fine, it's only a problem when trying to find workarounds for  
copy functions blocking the Rev app. As far as the OS is concerned  
it's a file, unless you need to get inside it.
Where it CAN be a problem is backup software - some will look inside  
all the packages, some will copy the whole thing again.

Sorry that all turned into a bit of a rant (and not really aimed at  
Chipp!), but personally I find packages as a document structure to be  
really handy...

Ian