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Message-ID: <3D3DA5D5.1080409@healthlanguage.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 12:52:05 -0600
From: "Larry V. Streepy, Jr." <streepy AT healthlanguage DOT com>
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To: "Robinow, David" <drobinow AT dayton DOT adroit DOT com>
CC: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: Odd mount and path problem
References: <80575AFA5F0DD31197CE00805F650D767B226C AT wilber DOT adroit DOT com>
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Robinow, David wrote:

>>From: Larry V. Streepy, Jr. [mailto:streepy AT healthlanguage DOT com]
>>Subject: Re: Odd mount and path problem
>>
>>Excellent description David, thanks.
>>
>>I was giving too much "unix" smarts to the process and 
>>assuming my D:/ 
>>mount on / was properly implying that /bin also resides on D:.
>>
>  Well, actually unix works the same way.  I use several machines where
> /usr/local is on a different drive than /usr.



I know how Unix works, I've got 20 years of Unix history.  I fully 
understand how mount operations work under Unix.  The issue here is how 
cygwin interprets paths with regard to drive letters.  I made the 
mistake of assuming that the drive letter for / would be inherited by 
all things mounted on / unless otherwise specified.


>>This is an area that the user guide could definitely use work on.
>>
>  Maybe, but see above.
>   cygwin, if I remember that far back, was originally intended as a tool for
> relatively experience unix folks to be able to run their stuff on Windows.
> The documentation to some extent reflects that.  There's very little "Intro
> to Unix for Windows users" type of information. It might be nice if somebody
> contributed something like that.  However, I don't think adding a lot of
> "Oh, by the way, if you don't know anything about Unix, blah blah blah ..."
> stuff to each section of documentation is the way to go.
> 
>>Again, thanks to all who helped answer this problem and shed light on 
>>what appears to be a misunderstood area.


This has nothing to do with being a Unix novice.  It's about a 
conceptual model for how cygwin merges the world of Unix and Windows.  I 
don't need a primer on Unix, I need a description of how cygwin makes 
the two worlds work together.  Personally, I think some critical 
information, as revealed in the last few emails, is missing from the 
user guide.  Being an expert in both worlds wouldn't have made this 
clear.  The one paragraph description that you provided did, and it 
should be in the user guide or at least in the FAQ.

Please don't take this wrong, I am truly appreciative of the help 
provided.  But my misunderstanding had nothing to do with a lack of 
understanding of either OS.  My guess is that other folks are in the 
same boat.  I didn't have the time to go read the source code, so I had 
to work off the information that I had available at the time.  It just 
wasn't sufficient to resolve the problem.

Thanks again.



-- 
Larry V. Streepy, Jr.
Chief Technical Officer and VP of Engineering

Health Language, Inc.  -- "We speak the language of healthcare"

970/626-5028 (office)           mailto:streepy AT healthlanguage DOT com
970/626-4425 (fax)              http://www.healthlanguage.com


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