On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 3:44 PM, Bret Johnson <bretj...@juno.com> wrote: >> LFNs on FAT was a very clever hack! It's now generally forgotten that >> it was Windows NT 3.5 that introduced the system, long before Windows >> 95. > > I personally don't think LFN on FAT was "clever" at all. It broke many > programs that worked just fine before that, including Microsoft's own > SCANDISK and DEFRAG. In fact, I would venture to say that if anybody other > than Microsoft had come up with the hack they would have been laughed right > out of the market. > > Up to that point, DESCRIPT.ION files were becoming something of a standard > that essentially accomplished the same thing, and didn't destroy the accepted > FAT structure. I'm not suggesting that DESCRIPT.ION files are a panacea, but > I think they are a MUCH better idea than what Microsoft did.
Looked at from the POV of compatibility with older DOS stuff, yes, it was a pain. But from Windows for Workgroups 3.11 on, Windows did not use DOS or DOS APIs for the filesystem at all. The VFAT 32-bit protect-mode file access API in Windows for Workgroups 3.11 was a whole new start. And at the end of the day, it's Microsoft's filesystem and it can do whatever it wants with it. Yes, no other vendor could do it, but no other vendor owns FAT. -- Liam Proven • Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk • GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lpro...@gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884 • Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AOL/AIM/iChat/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven • LiveJournal/Twitter: lproven MSN: lpro...@hotmail.com • ICQ: 73187508 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
