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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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