3 ms·

As if C:\TEMP or %tmpdir% were any better. Or using letters as drivers. Worse is better? A lot of tech in Win32 is built as if it were for DOS 1.0 or CP/M. Se

by anthk 2y ago

As if C:\TEMP or %tmpdir% were any better. Or using letters as drivers. Worse is better? A lot of tech in Win32 is built as if it were for DOS 1.0 or CP/M. See AUX, PRN, COM and so.

pjc50 2y ago
Backward compatibility, innit. Microsoft have tried to get people to use the newer, more heavily sandboxed APIs like UWP, but only very weakly, and they haven't committed to transitioning their own apps over as dogfood. Nearest they've got is actually migrating a lot of office to the cloud as Office365. Sunsetting Win32, or even having significant backwards-compatibility breaks, would upset so many corporate customers who would then refuse to upgrade.
- hulitu 2y ago
  > Sunsetting Win32, or even having significant backwards-compatibility breaks, would upset so many corporate customers who would then refuse to upgrade. Creating solutions in search of a problem doesn't work. I have to do my job and my computer shall halp me not get in the way. We are at the end of 2024 and i need admin access to install and use an USB to serial converter (or any other HW device) in Windows.
tredre3 2y ago
> As if C:\TEMP or %tmpdir% were any better. I mean, yes? %tmp% is in the user's directory, not accessible by the world.
- anthk 2y ago
  TMPDIR can be trivially set at $HOME/tmp too with just a file at /etc/profile
  - int_19h 2y ago
    But how many things on Unix hardcode /tmp though? On DOS it wasn't a thing because it didn't have a standard temp directory to begin with, so when the need arose, it was bolted on in an adhoc way (I remember the apps couldn't even agree on whether it should be %TEMP% or %TMP% or something else). Windows introduced it as a proper first party concept, but then moved it around so much that you pretty much had to use the API to retrieve the actual value if you wanted it to work. And then NT made that API return a path to a per-user directory by default.
    - anthk 2y ago
      Most things in Unix are libre software. Recompiling them to use another path it woudn't be rocket science.
pjmlp 2y ago
Yeah, nice jab attempt, except no one sells MS-DOS decisions as some grandiose OS architecture design. Its origins are quite clear, QDOS, Quick and Dirty Operating System. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/86-DOS https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/86-DOS

by anthk 2y ago

As if C:\TEMP or %tmpdir% were any better. Or using letters as drivers. Worse is better? A lot of tech in Win32 is built as if it were for DOS 1.0 or CP/M. See AUX, PRN, COM and so.

pjc50 2y ago

Backward compatibility, innit. Microsoft have tried to get people to use the newer, more heavily sandboxed APIs like UWP, but only very weakly, and they haven't committed to transitioning their own apps over as dogfood. Nearest they've got is actually migrating a lot of office to the cloud as Office365. Sunsetting Win32, or even having significant backwards-compatibility breaks, would upset so many corporate customers who would then refuse to upgrade.

hulitu 2y ago
> Sunsetting Win32, or even having significant backwards-compatibility breaks, would upset so many corporate customers who would then refuse to upgrade. Creating solutions in search of a problem doesn't work. I have to do my job and my computer shall halp me not get in the way. We are at the end of 2024 and i need admin access to install and use an USB to serial converter (or any other HW device) in Windows.

tredre3 2y ago

> As if C:\TEMP or %tmpdir% were any better. I mean, yes? %tmp% is in the user's directory, not accessible by the world.

anthk 2y ago
TMPDIR can be trivially set at $HOME/tmp too with just a file at /etc/profile
- int_19h 2y ago
  But how many things on Unix hardcode /tmp though? On DOS it wasn't a thing because it didn't have a standard temp directory to begin with, so when the need arose, it was bolted on in an adhoc way (I remember the apps couldn't even agree on whether it should be %TEMP% or %TMP% or something else). Windows introduced it as a proper first party concept, but then moved it around so much that you pretty much had to use the API to retrieve the actual value if you wanted it to work. And then NT made that API return a path to a per-user directory by default.
  - anthk 2y ago
    Most things in Unix are libre software. Recompiling them to use another path it woudn't be rocket science.

pjmlp 2y ago

Yeah, nice jab attempt, except no one sells MS-DOS decisions as some grandiose OS architecture design. Its origins are quite clear, QDOS, Quick and Dirty Operating System. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/86-DOS https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/86-DOS