[Info-vax] Re; Spiralog, RMS Journaling (was Re: FREESPADRIFT)

[VAXman- at SendSpamHere.ORG]

In article <nkr8gb$u4i$1 at Iltempo.Update.UU.SE>, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> writes:
>{...snip...}
>Essentially, since I've written a full TCP/IP for RSX, along with both 
>ftp client, ftp server, and web server, I have had to explicitly deal 
>with this problem for all of the cases, and it's about all type of files.

<applause!>



>So in essence, any web server, or ftp code, in RSX (and VMS) *have* to 
>read through some files to get the correct size. And unfortunately, this 
>applies specifically to text files, which normally natively are in a 
>format that does not make it possible to just calculate the size from 
>the available meta data.
>
>So, just because some file formats make it easy to figure out the 
>length, does not help, since some other formats still do not, and I have 
>to deal with all of them. And even worse, the most common ones, are ones 
>for which file size cannot be computed easily.

OK... So we should all toss fixed, VFC, VAR, STM and STMCF formats and use
STMLF exclusively.

Again, the filesize (in bytes) CAN be had but they'll not mean what you want
them to mean to your protocol transfer.  Again, I don't see that as any VMS
problem;  I see it as a protocol limitation imposed by all of the *ixers out
there that have, parochially, defined these protocols RFCs.



>To sum this up then: I have already looked long at the problem, and the 
>fact is that you sometimes would be much helped by having the file size 
>in bytes for files. 

And I've already pointed out that you can have that.



>Adding this in RSX is not going to happen (although 
>I can definitely see how it could be done). In VMS it might be that it 
>could happen, and there are definitely applications that would benefit 
>from it. So stop trying to convince me that it's not needed, because I 
>have already had to solve the problems that it don't exist, and know the 
>pain.

I didn't say it's not needed!!!  It's there but it's meaning is NOT what YOU
want it to be.  Time too is relative and it depends upon the reference frame
of the observer; Lorentz provided transforms for this.  Sadly, he's no longer
about to work out your transforms; you'll have to do it.

-- 
VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker    VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)ORG

I speak to machines with the voice of humanity.