🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi all, I'm about to moan. So If you are feeling happy, then switch off and go 
to bed.

Well Well Well, 250 character file names...

Oh man, what boozo came up with this "FEATURE" (Probably the same one that
came up with DX4 for 3x Intel processor).

Lets face facts. Giving an experienced user the ability to use Very Long
filenames, will not likely cause a problem - They are use to creating a 
hierarchy, storing things in folders and may use 16 characters in the 
filename. But to a new, inexperienced, and/or lazy user Very Long filenames 
will just simply create havoc for maintainence.
eg
  "This is the Budget for June 95"
  "Excel Spreadsheet of June 95 Budget."
  "Budget - June 95"

Finding these means you have to perform long string searches looking for:
 BUDGET & JUNE & 95  ... Time for a coffee...

What you say, we've got the grunt. Oh yeah, what about the "Runs on a 386/8MB"
propaganda ?

And what about filename extensions - Do we still need them ?
Ask someone who works on both Mac's and IBM's, reading customer files from
cartridges. (Quite vaild considering the attempts to have ALL PC's online)
Nothing beats the ability to just list files of a certain type. Whilst you
can deal with document types via OS registrations, At this stage, I'm not
satisfied that these registrations are stable enough. I think filename
extensions will be around for quite a while.

If I had my way, we would still restrict the length of filenames, but to 16
Characters, and optionally allow a 240 Character Description (Ala BBS's).
This way, users will be forced to name documents using only the relevant parts
of a possible description in the filename - You still have to search a string,
but it can only be 16 Chars long (ie one processor cache line full).

Now, what about these registration databases ?
Oh boy ! The Key word here is database. If you have a Database open, changes
have occured (user changes an option or something), and the PC dies (Power,
reset..) have a guess what happens to the database. Sure, we have a backup
copy, but how current is it ?

Stuff me roma peoples. We don't all have Non-Interuptable Power Supplies,
Brand Name PC's (Recessed\No Reset Buttons), and Software controlled\Enforced
Power Supplies (Ala Mac) !!.

Ah, but we should be running NTFS (Not that it is an option for Win 95). You
know the new you beaut transaction based File System that laughs at you when
you do get a corruption - Should have had RAID you naughty boy !.

Oh well, If one thing is for sure, I won't be out of a Job for a number of
Years yet. One step forward... should I take the blind fold off ?. You know
I sell better when I don't understand how it works.

Now where's that helmet...

 Richard RUDEK.                 ____  ____
 MicroDek. Sydney. Australia.  /___/ /___/
 rrudek@zeta.org.au           /  \  /  \
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