Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!lll-winken!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.misc
Subject: Re: binary data files
Message-ID: <1604@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 10 May 89 07:59:35 GMT
References: <10946@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <225800167@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> <1970@dataio.Data-IO.COM> <4122@ficc.uu.net>
Reply-To: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 13

>That's funny... most DEC systems I know (including RSX, which is what CP/M
>seems most closely modelled on) store files as a series of variable length
>records containing (usually) a 2 or 4 byte header containing the length and
>maybe the line number and then the data on the line.

There are zillions of DEC OSes; they're similar in some realms, and
different in others.  Whilst they have similar flavors of
command languages (both the old-style "run PIP and then type
outputfile=inputfile at its prompt" type and the new-style DCL type),
they have different text file formats.  RSX-11 and VMS use the IBMish
variable-length record format, but others (RT-11 being one, and possibly
TOPS-10 as well) use the CR/LF at the end format.  I don't know of any
others offhand that use the Files-11/RMS format.