Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!srhqla!tcm
From: tcm@srhqla.SR.COM (Tim Meighan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Stumpers
Message-ID: <1243@srhqla.SR.COM>
Date: 11 Jan 90 17:33:06 GMT
Reply-To: tcm@srhqla.SR.COM (Tim Meighan)
Organization: Silent Radio, Los Angeles
Lines: 27

In article <355@marvin.moncam.co.uk> emmo@moncam.co.uk
(Dave Emmerson) writes:

>Fine, I guess that anybody who hasn't grasped that those are the 'lost
>chains made accessible' by now is never going to. But nobody has explained
>how they could get 'lost' in the first place. 
>Computers aren't supposed to 'lose' things, or so I was told, this was
>part of their raison d'etre!

Good point, Dave.  However, there are lots of ways that chains can get "lost."
These include:

* Poorly written application programs.

* External forces that the file system cannot do anything about (ie, you reach
  over and turn off your computer while it is writing to disk.)

* Deficiencies in the file system itself.  Which, of course, means that even
  though computers aren't supposed to "lose" things, they are only as perfect
  as the people who design them.  Which means, of course, that they are not
  going to be perfect.

The point is, stuff breaks and it's a good idea to have the tools around
to fix them.

Tim Meighan
Silent Radio