UNIX Arcana [was Re: Perl (or Unix vs. MS, actually) ]

[pll at lanminds.com]

In a message dated: Tue, 20 Aug 2002 15:01:45 EDT
"Derek D. Martin" said:


>> I don't believe there was ever a name-length limitation on filenames.
>
>Then you believe incorrectly.  Many variants of Unix had a
>14-character filename limit.  There is still a limit today, though
>it's ridiculously large, so as not to matter practically.

Ahh, 14 characters, that does sound familiar.  You're right.  It was 
the mention of 4 character file names which threw me.  Sorry.

>I may only be imagining this, but I could swear it was a predecessor
>to Unix, from whence many of these commands originally came (possibly
>multics?  anyone?) that did have a four character filename limit.

I don't know a lot about multics.  Perhaps you're thinking of the 6 
character limitations of node names in DECNET, from whence came the
famous 'decvax' et. al.?

>OTOH, I haven't been getting much sleep lately... =8^)

What else have you to do? ;)
-- 

Seeya,
Paul
--
	It may look like I'm just sitting here doing nothing,
   but I'm really actively waiting for all my problems to go away.

	 If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right!