I keep reading this thread title as "Internet Spanking". Thank you
Berkeley Breathed.
On May 21, 2007, at 2:36 PM, Sean Conner wrote:
It's a shame Multics didn't survive in the wild long enough for the
hatefulness inherent in its "memory mapping only" file access to
become
common knowledge.
Oh come now, let it out. How is memory mapping files hateful?
Besides
being restricted by addressible memory.
Well, that was the most obvious one. 256kw max file size. Files larger
than 256kw. Standard file access library that pages through memory
mapped files. Worked OK for TECO, as I understand it, but the more you
tighten your grip, Lord Multics, the more programmers slip through your
grasp...
Another one is that you can't memory map a tape or punch or
Terminet-300.
Another one is that addressing memory implies pointers, and shared
address maps lead to shared pointers, and shared pointers lead to
suffering.
Today they'd just make pointers 128 bits and make them universally
unique.
