Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!daemon
From: tom@mims-iris.waterloo.edu (Tom Haapanen)
Subject: Re: HPFS for Windows (was Re: Sound under Windows...)
Message-ID: <1990Sep28.191613.14888@watserv1.waterloo.edu>
Sender: daemon@watserv1.waterloo.edu
Organization: University of Waterloo, WATMIMS Research Group
References: <BwRyP1w162w@zooid.UUCP> <26332@cs.yale.edu> <3399@gmdzi.gmd.de> <26382@cs.yale.edu>
Date: Fri, 28 Sep 90 19:16:13 GMT
Lines: 16

Joel Spolsky <spolsky-joel@cs.yale.edu> writes:
>>> InfoWeek I think said Microsoft was considering HPFS for a future
>>> version of Windows, now that they are basically dumping OS/2. This
>>> would be amazingly cool! Break every existing application, though...

>>Why should this break existing applications?

> Because just about every DOS application I know of makes assumptions
> about the maximum length of file names.

The solution is exactly the same as for OS/2 1.2: mark applications with
a flag that says "I know about long filenames".  If the flag is off, the
application can only access files with 8+3 character filenames.

[ \tom haapanen --- university of waterloo --- tom@mims-iris.waterloo.edu ]
[ "i don't even know what street canada is on"               -- al capone ]