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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uokvax!emjej
From: emjej@uokvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.micro.6809
Subject: Re: Please Read This Request
Message-ID: <3500063@uokvax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 13-Dec-84 02:05:00 EST
Article-I.D.: uokvax.3500063
Posted: Thu Dec 13 02:05:00 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 17-Dec-84 04:15:54 EST
References: <1786@ucf-cs.UUCP>
Lines: 28
Nf-ID: #R:ucf-cs:-178600:uokvax:3500063:000:1395
Nf-From: uokvax!emjej    Dec 13 01:05:00 1984

/***** uokvax:net.micro.6809 / ea!steve /  9:44 pm  Dec 12, 1984 */
	[OS-9] has several features that limit its UNIX compatibility. There
	are no filesystem links. It was deemed that this was a possible
	source of filesystem unreliability and they were omitted. This
	may change in future versions.

If you look at the layout of file descriptor sectors, you'll get a BIG
hint that links are in the pipeline (?! :->) -- there's a field in there
called "link count." All it should take (apart from symbolic links) is a
trivial tweak to RBF and probably a I$LINK system call to do the
obvious thing.  I hope they do it--that's probably all that keeps one
from porting the MH mailer tools to OS-9.

	"They couldn't match the love that Ma put into hers so they
	settled for cleaner design and Speed, lots of speed...".

While agreeing with this in spirit and enjoying the humor, I'd
definitely bet that OS-9 is a labor of love. It takes lotsa guts to go
up against Unix, the OS/360 of the 80's, especially with the historical
examples of Digital Research and Intel to show that all it takes is
being first, no matter how sorry, so that you have an interval during
which people develop software for your product because it's all there
is, after which people buy it because of all the software and people
write software to run under it because of the customer base.
/* ---------- */

						James Jones