Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!husc6!linus!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka
From: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Newsgroups: comp.os.misc
Subject: Re: OS features
Message-ID: <2627@mmintl.UUCP>
Date: 16 Dec 87 23:12:31 GMT
References: <561@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu>
Reply-To: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Distribution: na
Organization: Multimate International, E. Hartford, CT.
Lines: 17

In article <561@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu> chris@spock.ame.arizona.edu (Chris Ott) chris%spock@amethyst.UUCP writes:
>     One of the features of AOS/VS (Data General) that I like is its
>variable element size. Files are made up of elements of a given number
>of blocks. For example, if a file's element size is 10 blocks, the file
>will grow in chunks of 10 blocks at a time. ... I haven't seen this feature
>on any other operating system. Has anyone else?

IBM's OS/MVS/whatever-they-want-to-call-it has this in spades.  (You don't
really *want* it in spades, but that's how they have it.)  The increment
size is specified not per file, but per open file.  Actually, there is an
underlying segment size, but new chunks of the file are allocated in units
of the specified size.  You also specify the initial size, which may be
either smaller or larger than later chunks.
-- 

Frank Adams                           ihnp4!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka
Ashton-Tate          52 Oakland Ave North         E. Hartford, CT 06108