On 05/14/2015 10:26 PM, James Knott wrote:
On 05/14/2015 10:16 PM, Anton Aylward wrote:
The concept of fixed provisioning with fdisk or similar at system initialization (aka install) time dates from the first half of the last century
Actually, there wasn't any disks back then. The disk drive was invented by IBM in the 50s, which is in the 2nd half of the last century. Also, early drives didn't have a file system as such, just sectors on the disk or drum, which could be directly accessed by the software.
It all "revolves" (sorry for the pun) around what is meant by "Provisioning". Fixed provisioning of storage space, be it by file system or by bulk allocation or by volume of mercury in the delay line is still provisioning that has to be done at "initialization". Perhaps the initialization is the physical building of the machine! When I say "or similar' I really do mean that in the loosest of terms. Nothing in the examples you quote, James, contradict the point I'm trying to make. If you really do want an an example of pre DASD "dynamic" allocation you might turn to punch tape or punch card. Or perhaps some mag tape. Read it it, punch it out again with changes to replace the original. I've done that with an English Electric 800 series, magnetic amplifiers, not valves. Read in the compiler (ALGOL-60) from paper tape, then read in the source code, again from paper tape. It punches out the complied code. You then read that tape in :-) No storage other than the memory of the "mill". The tape came on big rolls, BIG BIG rolls, so its was sort of like the "allocate dynamically as needed" with LVM. Oh, and there were no file systems on paper tape either :-) -- A: Yes. > Q: Are you sure? >> A: Because it reverses the logical flow of conversation. >>> Q: Why is top posting frowned upon? -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org