Detecting directory changes.

[Dave Jones]

In message <3E6FF3EA.5080900 at qsl.net>, "John E. Malmberg" <wb8tyw at qsl.net> writes:

>It may work for now, but as it is an internal routine, it is 
>unsupported, and may break with out notice, even from the installation 
>of an ECO kit.  Without knowing what is using the internal routine, I do 
>not know if it will remain, will be removed, or if changes to RMS will 
>leave it totally or partially non-functional.  Linking against the 
>system image should also be avoided where ever possible of course.

The phrase "The Perfect is the enemy of the Good." comes to mind.  Before
the movefile service was finally added, Executive Software had no choice but to
use unsupported interfaces to make DisKeeper work.  DisKeeper was a successful
product despite the risks in using it because the benefits outweighed those 
risks for a lot of people.

As far as I can tell, nothing in base VMS uses the F11X$POSIX_FASTRDSEQNOS
routine.  Ostensibly, it was added to optimize the POSIX layered product
(or was that a SIP?).  There may or may not be current products that use
that routine (Pathworks possibly could).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David L. Jones               |      Phone:    (614) 292-6929
Ohio State University        |      Internet:
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Disclaimer: I'm looking for marbles all day long.