[Oberon] Oberon file names

[muller at inf.ethz.ch]

mcintosh at vima.austin.tx.us wrote:
> For reasons too bizaare to be sensible, I have thought about getting
> a second Ph.D., this time in computer science.  One dissertation
> topic that I have considered is to embed a database deep into the
> system and explore the implications.  In Oberon, the simple act of
> embedding a "Text," which is an abstract structure composed of files,
> deep into the operating system has been profound.  I think that the
> database dissertation topic would be very interesting.

Sounds interesting!

> Based on the work that I did in making the ISO_9660 compatible file
> system, I envision that a change to the file name scanner to include
> the "/" character in a file name would allow the command in the
> example to execute, and to give the results described, on a "flat"
> file system.  Moreover, it would give additional power.

"/" characters are indeed allowed in file names in current ETH Oberon
versions.  I think this was first done on the Windows and Unix ports, 
but Native Oberon has also supported since the installable file 
systems were implemented.

Changing the Texts.Name token is not ideal, because it can break 
existing programs.  We have also been changing commands that accept 
file names so that they accept quoted strings (e.g. "/dir/some name").
This is a more general and safer approach.  Not all commands have 
been updated yet.

In most commands this is simply a case of changing:
  IF s.class = Texts.Name THEN
to
  IF s.class IN {Texts.Name, Texts.String} THEN

-- Pieter

--
Pieter Muller, Computer Systems Institute, ETH Zurich / MCT Lab, Zurich
Native Oberon OS: http://www.oberon.ethz.ch/native/