Re: file names.number of characters

[tribby@cup.hp.com (Dave Tribby)]

richard overton (ricko@merle.acns.nwu.edu) wrote:
> Who is the nice person who can tell me why Macintosh allows file and folder
> names to be so much longer than DOS file and directory names? 

Even though GS/OS allows access to both HFS (Macintosh), MS-DOS, UCSD
Pascal, ProDOS, and DOS file systems, the File System Translators
(FSTs) for each type of file system have to enforce the limitations
imposed by the designers of each system.

Because each of these file systems was designed by a completely
different team of software engineers, they decision for file name
length and allowable characters were completely independent.

So don't blame your Apple IIGS for the differences in these file
systems. It's amazing that the Apple II engineers were able to
overcome the differences and allow access to all.

-- Dave Tribby (tribby@cup.hp.com)