Apple’s Magic Sound File Renaming
For those who are unaware, in macOS 11 (aka “Big Sur”), Apple changed all of the standard system sounds [names].
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The interesting thing is that if you go to look for the actual sound files (in /System/Library/Sounds), you’ll find that the filenames are the same as the old names.
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There is a application extension, /System/Library/ExtensionKit/Extensions/Sound.appex on my (macOS 14 "Sonoma") system. It is apparently a Quick Look plugin, but looking inside its package, I found a mapping table named AlertSounds.loctable. And this file is a binary property list file with a changed file extension. Dumping the contents of the file reveals the mapping. And not just one, but a big array of localized mappings[…]
“Basso” is now “Mezzo,” and “Sosumi” is now “Sonumi.” These are not just renamings; the sounds themselves are different, sometimes very different, as in “Purr” becoming “Pluck.”
I don’t really understand why they chose to maintain “compatibility” by changing the meanings of existing sound files, instead of adding the new sounds under new names (and perhaps hiding or deemphasizing the legacy ones, as they do with desktop pictures).
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They kept the existing sounds on iOS when they changed all the standard ones; why couldn't they have done that here? Sigh.
This has been a problem with OS X since its inception. A lot of stuff is based on file names and paths, but at the same time, a lot of the directory names are localized. How does Apple do it? By magically showing localized names in the UI, but using English names in the actual paths.
It's really terrible, and used to be so much better before OS X, when you could actually have localized file and folder names and still have things work properly.
