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:
“It has come to be practically a sort of rule in literature, that a man, having once shown himself capable of original writing, is entitled thenceforth to steal from the writings of others at discretion. Thought is the property of him who can entertain it; and of him who can adequately place it. A certain awkwardness marks the use of borrowed thoughts; but, as soon as we have learned what to do with them, they become our own.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)