File specification regularity (Was: Re: VMS vs. UNIX file system)

[Christopher Chiesa]

In article <25312 at teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA>, mkhaw at teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA (Mike Khaw) writes:
> In article <206 at arnold.UUCP>, dave at arnold.UUCP (Dave Arnold) writes:
> > To all you future filesystem designers, please avoid the following:
> >   SYS$SYSROOT[UTILS.ANUNEWS.SRC.NEWS_SRC]NEWSADD.OBJ;1
> > NOTE: SYS$SYSROOT is also a logical name which has 2 translations.
> > Oh yeah, then there is the DECNET node specs:
> >   VAXB"LOGIN PASSWORD":: plus the above.
> > I prefer:
> >   /sysroot/utils/anunews/src/news_src/news_add.obj
> 

Speaking as a 3-year VMS veteran who's been munging about in UNIX for about a
year now, I find that I prefer VMS file- and directory-specs, because I can
tell at a glance whether the entity I am ultimately referencing is a file or
a directory.  In UNIX I have to wait to enter my command and then receive an
error message to the effect that the entity I referred to was the wrong kind.

On the other hand, it IS quicker to type slashes and names, than colons and
brackets and dots and names...

All in all, I can use EITHER system quite conveniently and I find that to be
true on ALL computers, bar none, that I have tried: Atari and Commodore 8bits,
Amigas, Intel minis, PC's with MS-DOS, and a slew of others.  All it takes is
some getting used to.  Sometimes I think people just want instant comprehension
and get all honked off when faced with a "learning curve."  Perhaps I'm wrong,
but isn't it really just a matter of calming down and paying attention to 
what you're doing, rather than quibbling about notation?

Chris 

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