Date   : Wed, 27 Sep 2006 14:09:47 +0100
From   : jgh@... (Jonathan Graham Harston)
Subject: Re: File access 'M' on MDFS

>Message-ID: <35872.82.71.113.222.1159273152.squirrel@...
 
"Richard Gellman" <splodge@...> wrote:
> I believe we picked "M" to stand for "Multiple", as we were
> thinking of a scheme to allow more than one client to open
> the same file with write access (overriding the normal
> one-writer/multiple-reader locks).  However, this was never
> implemented.
 
Ah, that rings a bell. I had a suspicion it stood for 'Multiple'.
 
I have a vague recollection of reading an article with a
demonstration multiple-user networked database program that showed
multiple users opening the same files. I also have a memory of
reading something that talked about configuring the block size of
a file that could be accessed without being locked out by other
users.
 
Eg, if block size is 1024, then one user can read/write 0..1023,
while another user can write 1024..2047, etc.
 
> > There is a PDF version of the MDFS Manual at BBCDocs, I don't know if
> you can do a text string search within PDFs but if you can it might turn
> up something quicker than reading it from cover to cover.
 
It's a PDF of scanned images. No text search facility is going to
be able to search images. It's on the list of requiring a
volunteer to OCR it.
 
I have about 3% of the manual online at
http://mdfs.net/Docs/Books/SJMDFS
 
-- 
J.G.Harston - jgh@...                - mdfs.net/User/JGH
BBC BASIC for Windows and Internationalisation
  See http://mdfs.net/Software/BBCBasic/Windows/ProgTips