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From: allbery@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon S. Allbery)
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Subject: The nonorthogonality of `/'
Message-ID: <867@ncoast.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 27-Oct-85 20:08:22 EST
Article-I.D.: ncoast.867
Posted: Sun Oct 27 20:08:22 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 30-Oct-85 06:39:00 EST
References: <2359@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Organization: Cleveland Public Access UNIX, Cleveland, OH
Lines: 33
Keywords: file-system unix root directory
>................................................... No doubt some guru will
> suggest a clean way round the obvious problem with "/" (but the name of the
> root directory is already anomalous, and a counterexample to the c&sf-ness
> of the file system).
>
> -- Andy Walker, Maths Dept, Nottingham Univ
> anw@UK.AC.Nott.Maths
*** REPLACE THIS POLICE BOX WITH YOUR TARDIS ***
So ``/'' is non-orthogonal. (I am about to get TOPS-[12]0/T[W]ENEX users upset
at me... flames to PS:) I've seen orthogonal -- is PS: an improve-
ment? Worse yet, the easiest way to orthogonalize Unix is:
/ -> (empty) OR /
/tmp -> tmp OR /tmp
. -> . OR /. (yuck)
foo -> ./foo OR /./foo (double ")
/tmp/a -> tmp/a OR /tmp/a
foo/bar -> ./foo/bar OR /./foo/bar
I don't like either -- is cleaner. (Maybe we should adopt TOPS-20
filenames MINUS GENERATION-RETENTION-COUNT et cetera...?)
--
``Youth, you are guilty of muddy thinking.''
Mentor
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