On Thu, 4 Dec 2003, Vintage Computer Festival wrote:
> It's a total joke. First of all, the patents referenced on their FAT
> licensing website:
> http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/ip/tech/fat.asp
> ...are for long filenames. They have no patent on FAT, and for good
It has a link for "Learn More About the FAT File System"
which takes you to :
http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/ip/tech/fathist.asp
which is entitled "FAT File System: The Story Behind the Innovation"
which starts off with
"December 3, 2003
"The FAT file system was one of the first technologies developed by
Microsoft. In 1976, Bill Gates created the initial version of FAT during a
short hotel stay in Albuquerque, N.M. Intel incorporated FAT technology in
an operating system it developed for the Intel 8086 chip. Microsoft
purchased the rights to this system and then recoded the FAT file system
as part of the first version of the Microsoft MS-DOS operating system."
and then proceeds to blabber on about the file nickname (*) system
recently added (Windoze 98)
THAT is the least useful "history" that I have ever seen about it! "Bill
gates created...Microsoft purchased the rights"???? and WHAT Intel OS was
it?
I don't know where billg got the linked list idea from.
Patterson of Seattle Computer Products shared a booth with Microsoft at
the West Coast Computer Faire, and was "inspired" by the use of it in
the NEC or NCR "Microsoft Stand Alone BASIC" and used it in QDOS, which
MICROS~1 bought, and resold (after completion and a few changes) as
PC-DOS/MS-DOS.
(*) It is NOT "long filenames". If it were, then they would stand alone,
and be indexed BY the "long filenames". Instead, ALL indexing is done by
the 8.3 name. EVERY file has an 8.3 name that is used for all access.
In addition the user can refer to a file by a "nickname", that is then
used to FIND the 8.3 filename. The "long filenames" are a SUPPLEMENTARY
added name, and therefore a "nickname".
Received on Thu Dec 04 2003 - 13:56:40 GMT