Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!lll-winken!arisia!quintus!jbeard
From: jbeard@quintus.UUCP (Jeff Beard)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: ansi c and directories
Message-ID: <1289@quintus.UUCP>
Date: 4 Dec 89 16:51:31 GMT
References: <225800244@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> <3332@cbnewsd.ATT.COM> <7127@ficc.uu.net> <11707@smoke.BRL.MIL> <7156@ficc.uu.net> <1292@uwm.edu> <7193@ficc.uu.net>
Reply-To: jbeard@quintus.UUCP ()
Organization: Quintus Computer Systems, Inc. Mountain View, CA
Lines: 30

>
>> 	I'm sure the concept of a file is more inherit to operating
>> systems than is the concept of a directory.
>
>In any system for which files have names, there is at least one directory.
>
>`-_-' Peter da Silva. +1 713 274 5180. <peter@ficc.uu.net>.

Sorry Peter, IBM MVS and  DOS/VSE both have file names without resorting to
a directory file structure.

We have a name clash on 'DIRECTORY'.

Files must be anchored somehwere and sometimes it is in an object called a
directory.  This may or may not be the same as a file system that is implemented
as a hierarchal directory (as in Unix).  In the MVS and DOS/VSE cases cited, 
each physical disk contains a VTOC in which all file names on that volume are 
recorded.  File names may *appear* is if in a hierarchy but this is not the
case.  File names may also be 'catalog'ed in a system index.  The information
recorded allows deduction of the disk volume required to find a specific
file name, with the restriction that there is no duplicates allowed.

======
Opinions are the possession of the speaker and to assert otherwise 
is plagiarism.

Jeff Beard, Quintus Computer Systems, Inc.

e-mail ...!amdahl!sun!quintus!jbeard
phone  (415) 965-7700