[OT] NT, software reliability, and the lack thereof.

From: Mike Ford <mikeford_at_netwiz.net>
Date: Tue Mar 16 19:15:53 1999

>On Tue, 16 Mar 1999, Mike Ford wrote:
>>I don't get it, explain slowly please.
>
>In Windows 95, the MS-DOS file system is used for backwards compatibility,
>but the engineers decided to implement long filenames. They do this by
>using adjacent entries in the file allocation table for the same file. So,
>while DOS sees 8 characters, and 3 in the extension, as usual, Windows 95
>knows to check the following entries for the rest of the filename (this
>means that less files can be stored in the root directory, BTW). But in
>MS-DOS, you can't see the full filename, so Micros~1 decided to do
>something else: they take the first six characters of the filename, append
>a ~1. If the ~1 is taken, it appends a ~2 instead, and so on. So, if I
>make a file called 'Microsoft Internet Files.doc' in Windows 95 and then
>try to look at it in MS-DOS, it will simply say Micros~1.doc. Of course,
>since MS-DOS isn't case-sensitive, it should really be MICROS~1.DOC.

Gee, thats not funny, its kinda sad. People really use this thing called
Windows 95? Thats illogical. ;)
Received on Tue Mar 16 1999 - 19:15:53 GMT