On Thu, 26 Feb 2009, Rev. Stewart Marshall wrote:
Not just CPM I think every OS used a 8.3 naming system for a long time.
If I remember rightly my Commodore used it.
From the InfoWorld article, "Two patents cover the use of the 8.3
file-naming convention, designed for backward compatibility between file
systems that support both long and short file names."
So, the patent in question, as I understand it, doesn't cover 8.3
filenames by themselves. It covers the method the VFAT extension to
FAT uses to store a long filename, as well as a unique 8.3 version
of the long name. So, for example, you may have a directory on your
C drive called "Documents And Settings", but older programs written
before Windows 95 would see that as "DOCUMEN~1". So, in the data
structure on disk, there are actually 2 names stored for each file
or directory. So, I think the patent covers the storing of 2 filenames
in each directory structure, plus some method for generating the shorter
(8.3) name from the longer name.
That said, I think Microsoft are being asses by preventing the one
filesystem natively usable on Linux, MacOS and Windows from being
used. Most memory cards (camera, phone, etc.) and USB flash drives
use this filesystem for maximum portability.
Also, Unix has never used an 8.3 filesystem, which stores filenames
in two fields, one 8 characters long and the other 3, with an implied
dot between the parts. It had a filename which might or might not have
one or more dots in it. Some flavors of Unix (especially AT&T ones)
had a 14 character limitation, not sure if Xenix was one of those.
Linux and other modern Unix flavors have much longer limits on filename
length.
At 06:25 PM 2/26/2009, you wrote:
>Well it says MS has the patents on them...so then the answer would be yes.
I guess you never used CPM either.
--
Vicky Staubly http://www.steeds.com/vicky/ [email protected]
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