[Info-vax] Long uptime cut short by Hurricane Sandy

[David Froble]

VAXman- @SendSpamHere.ORG wrote:
> In article <ker9jj$nbi$1 at dont-email.me>, Stephen Hoffman <seaohveh at hoffmanlabs.invalid> writes:
>> On 2013-02-05 02:17:28 +0000, AEF said:
>>
>>> On Feb 3, 3:31 pm, Stephen Hoffman <seaoh... at hoffmanlabs.invalid>
>>> wrote:
>>>> Environment variables aren't a direct match to logical names.
>>>> Similarities, yes, but there also are substantive differences, too.
>>> Close enough for this. I just need to be able to use the variable as
>>> part of a path.
>>>
>>> Seems to me that at the most basic level, logical names are
>>> environment variables, in a sense anyway. Now, they have a much richer
>>> structure, with the different tables of varying scope, the various
>>> access modes, search lists, and what not. Their chief use is in
>>> device- and file-specs, of course. But they're also used in MAIL, for
>>> queues, for storing data, and more. So it's just a matter of what's
>>> translating them in what context. There's the automatic translation
>>> when part of a generalized file-spec, and automatic translation in
>>> certain other contexts. That's all different from environment
>>> variables in Unix. But I don't need all that for this. I just need the
>>> ability to have something I can use in a path.
>> So you are seeking a key-value data store, something that logical names 
>> classically excel at stinking at.
>>
>> Logical names got us the morass that is the DEC C feature logical 
>> names, after all.
> 
> Logical names did not create the morass.  
> 
> 

Agreed.

Many things (tools) can be misused.  It's not the fault of the tool.

Just because you can drive a screw with a big enough hammer is not the 
fault of either the screw or the hammer.