Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!jhunix!barrett
From: barrett@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Dan Barrett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: IAC (was Re: Clipboard (was Re: The Amiga's Future))
Message-ID: <8614@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU>
Date: 9 Jun 91 17:25:00 GMT
References: <1991Jun8.084126.3287@news.iastate.edu> <1991Jun8.150550.21859@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> <40@ryptyde.UUCP>
Organization: The Johns Hopkins University - HCF
Lines: 29

In article <40@ryptyde.UUCP> dant@ryptyde.UUCP (Daniel Tracy) writes:
>Does the Amiga's File Managment scheme make access of drives and files 
>TRANSPARENT to users AND applications?

	Yes, very much so!  If you have a file on the device FOO: (for
example), you don't have to know exactly what "FOO" is at all.  It might
be:

	-	A floppy disk?
	-	A directory somewhere on your hard drive?
	-	A RAM disk?
	-	The input or output of a process (a named pipe)?
	-	A networked computer?
	-	A handler?

Here's a great example.  Your floppy disk hardware, when addressed by
different names, can have several totally different functions.  When I
address my floppy as unit DF1:, it responds as an Amiga disk drive.  If I
address it as MS1:, it responds as an MS-DOS disk drive!  An application
transparently simply the device, which transparently responds the correct
way.

                                                        Dan

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