Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!husc6!cs.utexas.edu!milano!perseus!rcp
From: rcp@perseus.sw.mcc.com (Rob Pettengill)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Subject: Re: Tired C programmer (Really configuration files)
Keywords: LispM vs UNIX as an OS
Message-ID: <2308@perseus.sw.mcc.com>
Date: 4 May 89 22:04:45 GMT
References: <1989Apr30.183925.19847@cs.rochester.edu> <656@pitstop.West.Sun.COM>
Reply-To: rcp@perseus.sw.mcc.com (Rob Pettengill)
Distribution: na
Organization: MCC Software Technology Program
Lines: 39

In article <656@pitstop.West.Sun.COM> rvollum@sun.com (Rob Vollum) writes:
;In article <1989Apr30.183925.19847@cs.rochester.edu> miller@CS.ROCHESTER.EDU (Brad Miller) writes:
;
;>Actually, I'd say it's more sophisticated: the lispms employ "transparent
;>networking" which is considerably more efficient than UNIX. editing/copying
;>a file on the lispm, e.g. from the INTERNET is (for the user) the same as
;>editing copying locally. You don't run FTP, then copy the file, then edit
;>it... and that's a trivial example.
;
;I'm sorry, but I've got to disagree here. While LispM networking may be more
;convenient than FTP, it is definitely not transparent -- you've still got
;to know what machines your files live on. For "transparent networking", look
;at NFS, which is supported by any "serious" UNIX, which allows a user to
;build his own logical filesystem, using pieces of other filesystems around
;the network. Then there is no need to know where anything lives for copying,
;editing, etc. Compare the LispM's (ed "some-other-machine:>foo>hacks>bar.lisp")
;to "emacs /usr/robv/hacks/bar.lisp" for transparency. Given enough bandwidth,
;NFS can work over wide area networks as well, giving the same transparency.
;During the summer olympics in S. Korea, Sun consultants and Kodak folks used
;NFS to build logical "single view of the world" file systems from systems in
;Korea, London, and New York. Allowing for the requisite satellite latency, users
;had no idea where a file they were editing *really* lived!
; ...

Try again ... the lisp machine supports logical pathname hosts.  A
logical host allows an arbitrary mapping of directories and files,
into a logical file structure independent of host, file system,
network type, and network protocol.  As a heavy user of both lisp
machines, and "serious" UNIX machines I have found the logical
pathname host approach unmatched in the ability to create software
that will run transparently regardless of the filesystem environment
where it and its data are stored.

;rob

  Robert C. Pettengill, MCC Software Technology Program
  P. O. Box 200195, Austin, Texas  78720
  ARPA:  rcp@mcc.com            PHONE:  (512) 338-3533
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