Re: libtool--gary--1.0--patch-14

[Bob Friesenhahn]

On Fri, 23 Apr 2004, Richard Dawe wrote:
>
> There are several people using DJGPP on old systems running with short
> filenames. I don't have numbers - it's a bit hard to get solid numbers
> from a newsgroup (comp.os.msdos.djgpp). ;)

Microsoft claims patent to the scheme used to store long filenames in
the FAT filesystem and now charges hefty licensing fees (I heard a
base price of $250K) for the right to commercially use versions of FAT
which support long filenames.

This means that embedded systems which are still tied to MS-DOS (or
open/free DR-DOS) may end up reverting to 8+3 FAT in order to avoid
sending Microsoft a lot of money.

There is also potential impact for other operating system's which use
or support extended FAT (QNX, vxWorks, etc.).

So, 8+3 limitations may re-appear in some areas which use GNU build
tools.

Bob
======================================
Bob Friesenhahn
address@hidden
http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen