Message-ID: <13322@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 15-Sep-84 02:59:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.13322
Posted: Sat Sep 15 02:59:00 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Sep-84 05:49:14 EDT
Lines: 24

From:  Bridger Mitchell 

This code looks quite similar to a test version of PUBPATCH I released
late last spring.  Who's the contributor, and what's the background?

An article documenting the patch we developed at Plu*Perfect Systems is
scheduled for a fall Dr. Dobbs issue.  It includes code for a PUBLIC utility
to set/reset the public bit & list public files.  A disk is available with
an augmented SD to list public files in a separate 'public' directory.

Without some further bdos patches the patch you released will probably
suffer from the  weak points that we had to overcome in our initial version
of the public-attribute-bit approach:  era *.* will wipe out public files
from any user number, and dir  will show public files in every user number.
The Dr. Dobbs version handles this well-- public files have a type of SYStem
status and are accessible only by unambiguous filename or search-for-next
function.

Our approach is copyrighted, but we will be releasing it for non-commercial,
single-user use to the CP/M community.  SIMTEL20 availability would also
be fine; the documentation is the article, and I would have to check
with the editor about release before publication.

--bridger mitchell