Xref: utzoo comp.os.vms:8771 comp.unix.wizards:11225 Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!vsi1!altnet!uunet!mcvax!enea!sommar From: sommar@enea.se (Erland Sommarskog) Newsgroups: comp.os.vms,comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: VMS vs. UNIX file system Message-ID: <3954@enea.se> Date: 19 Sep 88 19:58:40 GMT Organization: ENEA DATA AB, Sweden Lines: 35 Jamie Hanrahan (jeh@crash.CTS.COM) writes: >I know, I know -- for many applications stream I/O makes for much cleaner >program design. But for others, it doesn't, at least not when you have >good alternatives available. I don't think one should over-emphasize the importance of what I/O- concept the OS uses. If I program in an high-level langauge it is rather the I/O-concept of that language which is of interest. At least if I/O is well-defined. In many modern langauges, I/O is not part of the langauge, but rather a library which could be more or standardized. What is left is of course the question of efficiency. So if the langauge like C only has stream I/O (I assume it is so, I don't speak C, so I could be wrong) then we don't benefit from a complex file system when all we want is simple streams. Ada, on the other hand, has text files, and record files both for sequential and direct access. For the compiler-writer it may be of interest if the file system supports the appropriate formats, for me as a programmer it does not. Whether it's in the file system or the RTL doesn't matter. Jamie Hanrahan complained that stream I/O meant that in-band data were used as a terminator. In practice this mean writing an LF in the middle of a text line is impossible in Unix, while is quite OK in VMS. (Which on the other hand impose a maximum length on the line.) So what about Ada? If I write an LF character the result will be different on VMS and Unix? Non-portable? Yes, but the manual also clearly says that I/O of non-printable characters is not defined by the language. -- Erland Sommarskog ! "Hon ligger med min b{ste v{n, ENEA Data, Stockholm ! jag v}gar inte sova l{ngre", Orup sommar@enea.UUCP ! ("She's making love with best friend, ! I dare not to sleep anymore")