[Default] On 20 Nov 2018 10:26:36 -0800, in bit.listserv.ibm-main li...@akphs.com (Phil Smith III) wrote:
>The whole ASCII-EBCDIC thing certainly has been a huge costprobably, as Gil >suggests, as large as the other two combined. But Id argue that it wasnt >necessarily either EBCDIC or ASCIIs fault, just that they evolved in parallel >and neither truly won [insert another debate about what winning would mean >here: clearly in terms of number of systems and raw horsepower, ASCII won; in >terms of business criticality, z holds its own, or it would presumably no >longer exist]. The NTS thing always struck me as hopelessly naïve, and case >sensitivity as some combination of naïveté and laziness. > I believe that at least the higher end Burroughs systems, the RCA Spectra series and Univac 8 bit machines also used EBCDIC. Clark Morris > >I understand that PDP horsepower was quite low, and so both of these made >sense at the time. That doesnt make them good or smart design decisions. Of >course its easy to Monday-morning quarterback this. > > > >The funny part about case sensitivity is that if you ask a *ix person why its >good, they almost universally assert that it is, but cannot come up with a >reason why, OR a case where you would deliberately mix two files or commands >with the same letters but different case (CONFIG.txt and config.txt, et >sim). > > > >Ive also always been surprised that no *ix implementation ever bit the bullet >and tried to fix case sensitivity. Windows, of course, got it right; alas, >given the historical antipathy *ix folks have for Windoze, I fear thats all >the more reason it will never get fixed > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- >For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, >send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
