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

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2016-06-27 16:53, VAXman- at SendSpamHere.ORG wrote:
> In article <nkr8gb$u4i$1 at Iltempo.Update.UU.SE>, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> writes:
>> {...snip...}
>> 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.

Urgh. I'd rather not. That would make VMS so incompatible with RSX. :-)

> 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.

First of all, don't blame Unix. Some of these protocols were designed 
before Unix was even relevant.
Second, what the byte size would mean depends on what it would be 
defined as. The only meaningful definition, in my opinion, is one that 
reflects the number of bytes that I would get if I were to read the 
file. And that would be a meaningful value for the uses cases I have 
given. (Yes, the implied CR+LF needs a bit more, but I have already give 
two suggestions how to deal with this.)

>> 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.

No I can't. I have lots of files. None of them can give me that. And 
converting the files is not the same thing, and is not an acceptable 
alternative.

	Johnny