Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!unido!gmdzi!strobl
From: strobl@gmdzi.UUCP (Wolfgang Strobl)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: RCS for DOS (long)
Message-ID: <3235@gmdzi.UUCP>
Date: 22 Aug 90 18:43:10 GMT
References: <1990Aug21.183747.9854@athena.mit.edu>
Distribution: comp
Organization: GMD, Sankt Augustin, F. R. Germany
Lines: 26

lfk@athena.mit.edu (Lee F Kolakowski) writes:

>2) On Unix a file is a file. And "Text" files are no different
>   as most of us know unix files have lines therminated by a single 
>   '\n'. MSDOS (enlightend as it may be) differntiates between
>   text files and binary files. ...

This is a misleading description. MSDOS doesn't differentiate here
between text and binary files, either. MSDOS inherited the standard
conforming ASCII newline sequence Carriage Return / Line Feed
from CP/M. Unix used the simpler, but nonstandard interpretation of
Line Feed as a single character newline indicator. 

The MSDOS open call does not have a text/binary flag. This flag
and the translation CR/LF <-> LF are a feature of the libraries
which come with the current MSDOS C compilers and are there to
make the C programmers interface to the file system Unix
compatible.

Of course, this is a minor point. But I am a bit tired to see 
features where Unix is actually compatible to most versions
of itself ;-) presented as inherent Good Things, when they
are in fact arbitrary implementation decisions.

Wolfgang Strobl
#include <std.disclaimer.hpp>