Newsgroups: comp.archives.admin
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!geac!alias!chk
From: chk@alias.com (C. Harald Koch)
Subject: Re: archive normal form
Message-ID: <1991Jun27.180424.3522@alias.com>
Sender: news@alias.com (0000-news(0000))
Organization: Alias Research, Inc., Toronto ON Canada
References: <1991Jun25.063045.22031@mel.dit.csiro.au> <EMV.91Jun25135450@bronte.aa.ox.com> <EMV.91Jun25175321@bronte.aa.ox.com> <17493.Jun2607.22.3191@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>
Date: Thu, 27 Jun 1991 18:04:24 GMT

In <17493.Jun2607.22.3191@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) writes:

>  19910520220500 f export.lcs.mit.edu:contrib/ups-2.31.tar.Z 963435 ftp,30

>is both more readable and more accurate. Your separation between
>``directory'' and ``file'' is a mistake, because some operating systems
>can express neither the null directory nor more than one directory in a
>single command. It's much more logical to have a composite filename,
>where each component before a slash means ``change directory to this.''


Except you have the problem that many OSes use a different separator
character than /, and allow slashes in file names (most commonly used for
putting dates in filenames...).

Then there are OSes that don't have 'directories', they have 'disk packs',
and then there are the hybrids (e.g. VMS). Every designer seems to want to
create yet another incompatible syntax for filesystems...

The clearest way to handle all the different variations out there is to keep
directory and file information separate.

Remember, all the world's not UNIX.

--
C. Harald Koch  VE3TLA                Alias Research, Inc., Toronto ON Canada
Internet:    chk@alias.com      chk@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu      chk@chk.mef.org
"I think you curdled my Pepsi!"-Gerry Smit, in response to sickening cuteness
