VMS: logicals UNIX: links, but...

[Kemp at DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL]

Like all flame wars, this one is becoming not only tedious, but
incoherent.  The latest, from Rahul Dhesi:

 > It turns out that VMS has a clearly-defined syntax for its
 > logical names.  (Well, precisely-defined, at least, if not very
 > clearly.)  A logical name like ":yzzy:abc$^&*" will definitely
 > not work.  [ . . . ]

If you could read, you would know that the argument is about the
semantics of VMS's logical name facility, not the syntax of the
identifiers used as path/file/logical names.

I don't have anything useful to add to this pile, except to note that I
too have found logical names to be convenient, and the suggested unix
surrogates (envars, .profiles, symbolic links, etc) to be not as
convenient.  I agree with the suggestion made earlier that if a third
party were to provide a logical name facility for unix, the marketplace
would decide on its merit.  They would have at least one customer.

  Dave Kemp <Kemp at dockmaster.ncsc.mil>