29 Aug
2006
29 Aug
'06
9:09 p.m.
Michael B. Brutman wrote:
I don't know if anybody pointed it out already but the IBM S/38, AS/400
and derivatives have strongly typed 'objects', not files. It doesn't
matter what you name a database table, an Ethernet line description, or
a user profile - the OS knows what those things are and will not
interpret them differently if you copy or rename them.
Does the *application* (that created the object) tag the file?
Or, must the OS be made aware of the file's type (by inspection,
etc.)?
If the former, how do competing applications "register" their
ability to handle a particular "type"? (e.g., the example
from a previous post of wanting to "open"
JPG's with different
applications -- as a function of the JPG itself)
As a concession to hierarchical filesystems like the
ones used by Unix
there is a 'file system' where the OS refuses to interpret what the
files are and just considers them streams of bytes.