Eric, what I meant is: see how many people writes to us telling that the MS-DOS-style MENUing in CONFIG.SYS does not work in FreeDOS, so I guess we would be flooded with messages like: "I wrote with LFNs to a disk, and Windows no longer recognises the filenames, and has the FILE4~1.TXT form instead".
Aitor 2009/4/9 Eric Auer <e.a...@jpberlin.de>: > > Hi Aitor, > >> But then it wouldn't be compatible with the LFN that came with >> Windows9X and is used in the millions of USB devices or the like, nor >> with the applications that are LFN-aware (unless you'd like to rewrite >> the DOS LFN API descript.ion-based... > > ... >>> I think a descript.ion file based driver to support >>> long file names would be a fine idea indeed :-). >>> And it would avoid the ugly kludgy way in which MS >>> stores LFN spread over multiple directory entries. > > Well actually that is what I meant - descript.ion is a classic > for some shells and file managers, but it is also a nice way to > store long file names in filesystem independent way and without > having to implement any kludgy patented VFAT style LFN storage. > > With a driver showing the usual int 21 LFN interface to the apps > but using descript.ion instead of "LFN fragment direntry chains" > for the actual LFN storage, we can have more free, more open and > more portable long file names :-). On the down side, the driver > will not read or write VFAT LFNs for you, so if you want to let > Windows and DOS access the same drive, you would not share LFNs. > > This includes USB drives and MP3 player devices and similar, but > not for example CD / DVD which use non-VFAT LFNs anyway for which > DOS uses separate drivers anyway... > > In short: If you want VFAT then the only way to get it is to use > VFAT, but that might have licensing issues if you use DOS in your > embedded device. If you only want LFN, you can get it even in a > way that makes LFN DOS apps happy without having to touch VFAT > data structures, using a descript.ion based LFN API driver :-). > > Eric > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > This SF.net email is sponsored by: > High Quality Requirements in a Collaborative Environment. > Download a free trial of Rational Requirements Composer Now! > http://p.sf.net/sfu/www-ibm-com > _______________________________________________ > Freedos-user mailing list > Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stay on top of everything new and different, both inside and around Java (TM) technology - register by April 22, and save $200 on the JavaOne (SM) conference, June 2-5, 2009, San Francisco. 300 plus technical and hands-on sessions. Register today. Use priority code J9JMT32. http://p.sf.net/sfu/p _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
