From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: usotsuki@buric.co (Steve Nickolas) Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2017 07:44:22 -0500 (EST) Subject: [TUHS] Happy birthday, Ken Thompson! In-Reply-To: <20170204123851.GF21797@yeono.kjorling.se> References: <20170204123851.GF21797@yeono.kjorling.se> Message-ID: On Sat, 4 Feb 2017, Michael Kjörling wrote: > On 4 Feb 2017 07:00 +1100, from dave at horsfall.org (Dave Horsfall): >> Just think: without those two, we'd all be running M$ Windoze and >> thinking that it's wonderful. > > I wouldn't be so sure that claim should stand uncontested, given that > PC-DOS 2.0 (long before Windows) largely copied the concept of > directories from UNIX. Just think how wonderful Windows would be if it > was running on top of a file system that lacked the concept of > directories. MS-DOS 2 took an OS that was largely inspired by CP/M and replaced the file API *with that of Xenix* just to add directory support. Best change they ever made. Now if only IBM hadn't forced them to use \ as the path separator instead of /, it would've been slightly better. Still, MS-DOS was probably the most C-friendly system out there that wasn't a Unix or Unix clone. Bit hackish how they emulated piping, though didn't "Mini Unix" do the same thing? > Then again IIRC the original Macintosh file system had no concept of > directories, but they somehow faked them in software. Makes you wonder > why they went through all that trouble instead of implementing > _proper_ support for directories/folders/filing cabinets/drawers/etc. I believe this is correct. -uso.