[cobalt-users] Re: Re: user default page shows username@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[Charlie Summers <charlie@xxxxxxxxxx>]

At 7:42 PM -0500 11/21/01, BT is rumored to have typed:

> and I had a mac that would only use 8.3
> filenames....eg .htm

   (*sigh*)

   No, sir, you did not. The Macintosh has _never_ used extensions natively
(it used a four-character type and four-character creator code to link
documents to applications through the invisible "Desktop" file, later
"Desktop DF" and "Desktop DB" filepair, so any "." character in a filename is
just another character), and from the original Macintosh (128k) used 31
characters for filenames and 27-characters for volume names (actually, as
specified by MFS, filenames could be 255 characters, but the MFS Finder only
recognized filenames of 63 characters; it was the later HFS that further
limited filename length to 31 characters), so it could _always_ use ".html"
for web page extensions. This under a 16-bit 68000 processor, remember.

   So it's apparent that 8.3 filenaming conventions have nothing whatsoever
to do with 16-bit processing, nor 8-bit processing for that matter (a la
CP/M, where MS-DOS gets most of its underpinnings); you're mixing apples and
oranges. The only limitations when it comes to filenames are within the
filesystems used, and the method by which the OS accesses those filesystems
(as an example, if a Mac running System 7.5 reads a RockRidge-compliant
CD-ROM, it can only display 31 characters in a filename even if the filename
is longer as permitted by the standard).

   And yes, you are welcomed to use ".xyz," ".k," or even ".gigglesnort" as
your web-page extension, so long as you properly set up your MIME types to
send text/html for those extensions even on a 32-bit RaQ, but that wouldn't
make it the standard for web page extensions. MS was forced to use ".htm" by
its _own_ Win31 limitations (note even under Win31, third-party software
allowed for long filenames, including four-character extensions), and foisted
them on the rest of the world as if it was the only way. Pretty much like
everything else they do.

         Charlie (who has a 128, a couple of 512, and some Mac Plus
                   machines in the basement, and has worked with them
                   since System 0.9 and programmed them since not too
                   long after - and who promises to stop this off-topic
                   discussion now with apologies to the rest of the list)