Subject: Re: fd dev

From: [email-masked] (Bruce Varney)
Date: Sun, 5 Apr 92 20:23:23 EST

In the unforgettable words of  [email-masked]:
->
-> 
->Someone has written asking me what is wrong with
->    /dev/at0
->    /dev/xt0
->These names are meaningless to me, and ought to be eliminated.

		YES!!

-> 
->Someone else has written to say, with repect to my suggestion
->    /dev/fd0h3
->    /dev/fd0q5
->    /dev/fd1d3
->that we ought to eliminate the final digit.  Unfortunately this
->means that on some systems /dev/fd0h would be a three inch disk,
->on others a 5 inch disk, so that the same name would refer to
->different devices.  This in turn would lead to software (eg
->versions of mtools) that would work on one system but not on
->another, and for a reason which would be very hard for us net
->friends to track down (at least the first time).  If someone
->wants to link fd0h to whatever is appropriate for his machine,
->let him do so, but software should not be distributed which
->refers to system specific devices.

	Well, I don't see how your last statement is in agreement with
everyting else. Software should refer to /dev/fd0, and /dev/fd1. The
kernel should have the job of using the appropriate driver. You are
right. Software should NOT refer to system specific devices. /dev/fd0h3
IS a system specific device. /dev/fd0 is a "generic" device. The name
is that of the first floppy drive. The kernel will allocate the
appropriate driver.

				Bruce