[Oberon] Email and file names in ETH Oberon.

[peter at easthope.ca]

From:	Joerg <joerg.straube at iaeth.ch>
Date:	Sun, 18 Dec 2022 22:39:50 +0100
> You could write an email server for both protocols using the same 
> UID coding, namely a 32bit number 

For now I just want to be sure Mail works in ETH Oberon.

For my mail server, "peter at easthope.ca" is a user.  Mail replaces @ 
with X to have a valid file name as discussed a few days back.
(https://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/Oberon/Naming#Files,_Servers_and_Viewers)

Mail.UIDLFile creates a file name such as 
"UIDL.172.23.5.1.peterXeasthope.ca".

That's 33 characters.  Mail.UIDLFile attempts to open or create a file 
with that name but fails with any name longer than 27 characters.  Ie.  
name + .Bak + 0x is limited to 32 characters.

The OFS module declares,
CONST
	...
	PreLength = 16;
	LocalLength = 128;
	FileNameLength = PreLength + LocalLength;

Have yet to find where and why the 27 + 5 character limit is imposed.  
It can interfere with the "dictum of meaninful file names".
Conscientious as a user might be, a good name within 27 characters can 
be difficult.  For Mail, the difficulty is more technical.

Ideas?

Thx,                                   ... P.L.


mobile: +1 778 951 5147
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https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/User:PeterEasthope