Aucbvax.2050
fa.works
utzoo!duke!decvax!ucbvax!WorkS-REQUEST@MIT-AI
Thu Jul  2 19:25:34 1981
Errata on Barns message Addressing and File Accessing
Original statement:

  As far as I know the machines under discussion generally belong
  to the Multics/Tenex/Unix school of thought that on the one hand,
  there is memory, and on the other hand, there are files.
                                                   -- Barns at OFFICE


Comments:

  Multics does not view files as something fundamentally different
  from memory.  Rather, it was the first system to support a uniform
  single-level memory system consisting of variable size objects
  (segments) from 4096 bytes to 1 megabyte in length. Files were
  simulated in Multics for compatibility reasons only, and files
  were constructed out of segments.
                                    -- Paul A. Karger <PAK MIT-MC AT>

  An important correction for all of you who have never used Multics,
  and are constantly assuming that it is like UNIX or TENEX.  It is
  not. Barns, for example, says that Multics/TENEX/Unix differentiate
  between files and memory (and that the S/38 doesn't).  Multics was
  the first system to do away with the concept of file--Multics "files"
  are merely part of its large virtual memory, and are accessed via
  pointers.  S/38 has few new ideas in this area, and a lot of crocks.
  Pish tush.                                         -- DPR at MIT-XX

    You are completely wrong in classifying Multics in this group.
  In Multics, there is absolutely no distinction between "memory"
  and "files"; there are just segments, which live in a hierar-
  chical file system and are addressed directly.  The System 38
  is a spiritual descendant of Multics in this regard.
    Just because an idea is old-fashioned does not mean you should
  identify it with Multics.  For all Multics's problems and extreme
  age, it is STILL ahead of its time in some ways.  Sorry for the
  irrelevance of this message, but I couldn't just let this go by...
                                 -- Daniel L. Weinreb <DLW AT MIT-AI>


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