From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 12751 invoked from network); 23 Jun 2020 14:01:59 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (45.79.103.53) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 23 Jun 2020 14:01:59 -0000 Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 8A6F09C1FD; Wed, 24 Jun 2020 00:01:54 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 91FA79C1AF; Wed, 24 Jun 2020 00:01:27 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id CF8389C1AF; Wed, 24 Jun 2020 00:01:24 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mcvoy.com (mcvoy.com [192.169.23.250]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 7E6D39C1AD for ; Wed, 24 Jun 2020 00:01:24 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mcvoy.com (Postfix, from userid 3546) id 548F935E149; Tue, 23 Jun 2020 07:01:24 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2020 07:01:24 -0700 From: Larry McVoy To: Paul Ruizendaal Message-ID: <20200623140124.GR22291@mcvoy.com> References: <4FC7FA55-5035-41A2-B52F-AE26DC8BED2C@planet.nl> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <4FC7FA55-5035-41A2-B52F-AE26DC8BED2C@planet.nl> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.24 (2015-08-30) Subject: Re: [TUHS] VFS prior to 1984 X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Cc: TUHS main list Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" I like to claim credit for creating the ChangeSet concept, the grouping of a set of deltas across a number of files. But I wasn't the first. Back when dejanews was a thing and you could search usenet posts in a date range, if you searched before I started talking about ChangeSets, you could find 6, count 'em, 6 hits. There was a really obscure system called Aide De Camp, that had a similar concept. But if you searched after I started talking about them you would see millions of hits. So I didn't invent the concept but I sure as heck made the world understand the concept. I suspect Sun could be in a similar position. The VFS concept is pretty sweet so there might have been someone before Sun. I'll long odds that if there was, it didn't gain traction until Sun did it. If there is nothing that predates it, then the inspiration was almost certainly the device driver interface. One interface, many devices. VFS is the same. On Tue, Jun 23, 2020 at 11:09:57AM +0200, Paul Ruizendaal wrote: > When googling for File System Switch or Virtual File System most sources mention Sun NFS and SysVr3 as the earliest implementations. Some sources mention 8th Edition. > > I did a (short) search on FSS/VFS in earlier, non-Unix OS???s (Tenex, Multics, CTSS, etc.), but none of those seem to have had a comparable concept. > > Does anybody recall prior art (prior to 1984) in this area? > > Paul -- --- Larry McVoy lm at mcvoy.com http://www.mcvoy.com/lm