Re: Interrupted discussion of BIRD 46

Matthew Flora wrote:
>
> All,
>
> This morning's IBIS Open Forum meeting was cut off in mid-discussion of
> BIRD 46. In that discussion, it was pointed out that file names longer than
> eight characters may get truncated (at least visually) under Windows NT 3.5.
>
> Now in proposing this BIRD, it is was our intent to lift restrictions that are
> no longer needed. If NT 3.5 is still a common engineering platform and it or
> any other common engineering platform cannot trivially support file names
> longer than eight characters, then by all means, let us keep the restrictions.
>
> However, bear in mind that this BIRD will not take effect until after IBIS 3.1
> is ratified. At that future date, will NT 3.5 still be a common engineering
> platform?

The NT file system inherently uses long file names. Of course, if
the system is sharing a FAT volume it'll be limited to 8.3,
but what most NT users see is strictly a shell effect in directory
listings; programs have full access to the long filenames.

Note that the 8.3 limitation when accessing FAT volumes applies to
4.x as well, since NT doesn't use the Win95 hidden filename extensions.

Bottom line: NT3.5 doesn't need special consideration here; it handles
long names quite nicely. (Says, DCS, who used to administer NT3.5
systems.)

-- 
D. C. Sessions
dc.sessions@tempe.vlsi.com