Distinguishing Marks
In System 7 through Mac OS 9, aliases distinguished themselves visually to the user by the fact that their file names were in italics. To accommodate languages that don't have italics (such as Japanese), in Mac OS 8.5 another distinguishing mark was added, badging with an "alias arrow" - a black arrow with a small white border - similar to that used for shortcuts in Microsoft Windows.
In OS X, the filenames of aliases are not italicized, but the arrow badge remains.
Alias files start with the magic number 62 6F 6F 6B 00 00 00 00 6D 61 72 6B 00 00 00 00 which is "book\0\0\0\0mark\0\0\0\0".
Read more about this topic: Alias (Mac OS)
Famous quotes containing the word marks:
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)