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> <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