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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.hawaii.edu!ames!usenet.kornet.nm.kr!usenet.etri.re.kr!news.kreonet.re.kr!news.dacom.co.kr!vyzynz!bofh.dot!newsfeed.concentric.net!news.texas.net!nntp.primenet.com!news.asu.edu!ennfs.eas.asu.edu!cs.utexas.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!blackbush.xlink.net!rz.uni-karlsruhe.de!news.uni-stuttgart.de!news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de!saph2.physik.uni-bonn.de!juengst From: juengst@saph1.physik.uni-bonn.de (Henry G. Juengst) Newsgroups: comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc Subject: Re: How to delete files within C programs Date: 14 May 1996 13:40:54 GMT Organization: Institut fuer Strahlen- und Kernphysik Lines: 44 Sender: juengst@saph2.physik.uni-bonn.de (Henry G. Juengst) Distribution: world Message-ID: <4na2h6$sbv@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de> References: <4mu7is$sro@web.nmti.com> <4mv2r7$ld3@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de> <4mvsjp$nhn@web.nmti.com> <Dr8x7z.D44@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> Reply-To: juengst@saph1.physik.uni-bonn.de NNTP-Posting-Host: saph1.physik.uni-bonn.de Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.misc:22741 comp.unix.bsd.misc:1044 In article <Dr8x7z.D44@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>, richard@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Richard Tobin) writes: >In article <4mvsjp$nhn@web.nmti.com> peter@nmti.com (Peter da Silva) writes: >>In article <4mv2r7$ld3@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de>, >>Henry G. Juengst <juengst@saph1.physik.uni-bonn.de> wrote: >>> Normally the number of bits is given by the width of the data bus. > >>For an operating system, which is a piece of software, the number of >>bits is given by the programming model. > >Indeed. For example, I can see *nothing at all* in the FreeBSD kernel >that distinguishes between 386DX and 386SX, one of which has a 32-bit >bus and the other a 16-bit bus. > >Did this nonsense about N-bit operating systems exist at all before >the days of DOS and MS-windows? > >The things measured in bits that matter in an operating system are >the memory address space and the file and filesystem size. These may >be quite unrelated to the bus size. For example, Suns used not to >be able to handle disks bigger than 1GB - a serious problem - but >this was due to the SCSI implementation not the bus width. Your article (1GB example) and Bill Marcum's (bmarcum@iglou.iglou.com) article <Dr79oJ.3Bt@iglou.com> show that it is neccessary to make differences between address space and the width of the data bus. Just write exactly what you mean and everything is fine. All those '32-bit mode operating system' messages are meaningless. > >-- Richard >-- >"Hither turn thy steps, hither come to thy death and for Camilla >receive due guerdon! Shalt thou, even thou, die by Diana's darts?" > [Virgil, Aeneid X1 855-7] Henry -- juengst@saph1.physik.uni-bonn.de [131.220.161.1] (Internet) omni:.de.uni-bonn.physik.saph1::juengst (DECnet/OSI, phase V) saph1::juengst [26.358] (DECnet, phase IV) Any opinions in this mail are my own.