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From: Margulies@SAPSUCKER.SCRC.SYMBOLICS.COM (Benson I. Margulies)
Newsgroups: mod.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Submission for mod-protocols-tcp-ip
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Date: Mon, 29-Dec-86 09:37:00 EST
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Posted: Mon Dec 29 09:37:00 1986
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	Date: 29 Dec 86 08:32:06 GMT
	From: sun!news@seismo.CSS.GOV

	Path: sun!gorodish!guy
	From: guy%gorodish@Sun.COM (Guy Harris)
	Newsgroups: mod.protocols.tcp-ip
	Subject: Re: Need information on NFS
	Summary: Pathname syntax/semantics and file formats are two separate issues.
	Message-ID: <10851@sun.uucp>
	Date: 29 Dec 86 08:32:06 GMT
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	> Consider TOPS-20 directory structure, VM/CMS mini-disks, file system
	> that permit "/" characters in their filenames, or especially file
	> systems (like VMS and VM/CMS) that have structured (non-byte stream)
	> files.  None of them map very quietly into a hierarchical set of
	> directories separated by "/" characters, and there are more and harder
	> where they came from.

	The problem with VMS pathnames has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact
	that some operating systems keep file attributes like file format around and
	that a certain level of those OSes (not the kernel, in the case of VMS, but
	RMS) imposes a certain interpretation of the bytes in the file, based on
	these file attributes, on its clients.  Those are separate issues; you can
	build a system with a VMS-style pathname syntax but with no interpretation
	of the file's contents below user-mode code, or a system with UNIX-style
	pathnames but with VMS-style file attributes handled by something like RMS.

    Indeed. Perhaps if I changed the last sentence to:

      "None of them map very quietly into a hierarchical set of directories
    separated by "/" characters where all of the files are expected to be
    simple vectors of 8bit bytes"

    you would like it better.  They are separate problems.  They are both
    hard.