Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!haven!adm!xadmx!Kemp@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL From: Kemp@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: VMS: logicals UNIX: links, but... Message-ID: <19243@adm.BRL.MIL> Date: 22 Apr 89 02:39:25 GMT Sender: news@adm.BRL.MIL Lines: 20 Like all flame wars, this one is becoming not only tedious, but incoherent. The latest, from Rahul Dhesi: > It turns out that VMS has a clearly-defined syntax for its > logical names. (Well, precisely-defined, at least, if not very > clearly.) A logical name like ":yzzy:abc$^&*" will definitely > not work. [ . . . ] If you could read, you would know that the argument is about the semantics of VMS's logical name facility, not the syntax of the identifiers used as path/file/logical names. I don't have anything useful to add to this pile, except to note that I too have found logical names to be convenient, and the suggested unix surrogates (envars, .profiles, symbolic links, etc) to be not as convenient. I agree with the suggestion made earlier that if a third party were to provide a logical name facility for unix, the marketplace would decide on its merit. They would have at least one customer. Dave Kemp