Filesystem Path Formats I was curious where the RISC OS `device.path.leads.to.file` style path format came from.
Apparently it came from the classic IBM OSes.
Multics >device>path>leads>to>file.ext
Unix /device/path/leads/to/file.ext
MIT ITS device:path;leads;to;file ext extension is separate from filename
Amiga device:path/leads/to/ext.file extension comes first
CP/M device:\path\leads\to\file.ext
DOS device:\path\leads\to\file.ext yes, MS "borrowed" a lot from CP/M
MacOS device:path:leads:to:file.txt System 1 to Mac OS9
VMS device:[path.leads.to]file.ext also allows ext.gen - versioning
TOPS-20 device:<path.leads.to>file.ext also allows ext.gen - versioning
TENEX device:<path.leads.to>file.ext
IBM zOS device.path.leads.to.file.ext
RISC OS device.path.leads.to.file extension is separate from filename
DOS files .ext is renamed to /ext
while ROS files get ,HEXCODE suffix
when transferred to DOS or over
network, without MIME types.
Note that MIT ITS/VMS/TOPS-20/zOS/RISC OS allow several named root dirs for a device.
I.e. single device could have several filesystems.
Typically they are specified as DEVICE$FILESYSTEM
So basically, the `.` format comes from IBM. Unsure if the `.` in C based language was also based on it.
NOTE: MIT ITS apparently too allowed referencing separate partitions of the device
https://github.com/PDP-10/its/blob/master/doc/NITS.md:MIDAS DSK0:.;NITS BIN_SYSTEM; ITS
Here `:.;` I think stands for the default partition. On RISC OS that would be :$.
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