Date: Tue, 27 Feb 1996 11:02:16 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> To: jehamby@lightside.com (Jake Hamby) Cc: terry@lambert.org, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD ports to NT (was Win32...) Message-ID: <199602271802.LAA05119@phaeton.artisoft.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.AUX.3.91.960226162805.108A-100000@covina.lightside.com> from "Jake Hamby" at Feb 26, 96 04:45:22 pm
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> > The FS call themselves don't care about / vs \ and the directory
> > lookup is case insensitive, so I don't know what you are seeing.
>
> Apparently, you haven't seen the POSIX subsystem of Windows NT. These are
> NOT Win32 programs, they run in a separate protected subsystem which has
> its own limited API (basically a subset of "libc") that enforces case
> sensitivity and / for directory pathnames. It also has no provision for
> graphics or network calls. The particular POSIX utilities I'm referring
> to are on the NT 3.51 Resource Kit CD-ROM in a POSIX subdirectory.
Apparently you thought I was referring to the POSIX library rather than
the Win32 FS API on which it is built.
I was noting that it was a deficiency of the POSIX subsystem, not a
deficiency of NT.
The 32 bit MKS tools for WinNT/Win95 don't have these deficiencies.
> As I said above, I was referring to POSIX subsystem programs which are
> NOT Win32. I hope Microsoft realized their mistake with the whole
> subsystem idea since neither the OS/2 1.x nor POSIX subsystems are very
> useful, and Win16 and DOS are included inside the Win32 subsystem, so
> in retrospect, they didn't need subsystems after all! Now, if somebody
> were to make a MacOS or FreeBSD-binary-emulation subsystem, that would
> be a different story! :-)
Linux might be possible, in that it uses a call gate for traps.
> > Actually, I'd like to see a help file compiler and X and command line
> > readers for BSD. 8-).
> >
> > Something like the SDK's HCW.EXE ("Help Workshop"). 8-).
>
> TWIN has its own WinHelp viewer, and Bristol sells a commercial version.
> Personally, I like the SGML/HTML format for help the best, but it is too
> inconvenient (not to mention slow!) to start up Netscape within your
> application just to view online help. That's one of the problems with
> programming for Unix, there is no standardization for help, even though
> Motif says every program must have it, they don't say how! :-(
Yes. That's what I want to see. A standardized help source format,
a standard "compiled" help format, and a standard text and X viewer.
SGML would really be ideal, actually; there is a need for SGML tools
as well (not just HTML tools) that you can give a DTD as part of
startup and have it act like HTML or whatever.
Terry Lambert
terry@lambert.org
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.
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