Preface:
I have been involved in computers ever since the very first “Personal Computer” was introduced by IBM to the average Joe market. DOS version: 1.0. Yep… that’s right, DOS One point Zero. File names in DOS 1.0 was a challenge at best. You had only eight characters to accomplish some intelligible but still cryptic name. During the ‘8 bit byte‘ time, I had to get creative in my file naming schemes.
Computers at that time were based on an 8 bit path, i.e: eight digits. “8 bit” was chosen at the time instead of, 7 or 9 bit byte. (i.g: this established 8 bits to a byte) This was done not because it was not possible at the time vs. 16 bit or, the now 64 bit path in Windows10, but simply, memory was at a premium. Before being released to the public, the original motherboard (MBD) was 16K (16,000 bytes) soldered on the MBD. The version I received in Oct of 1982 was 64K soldered to the MBD, as it was released to the general public by IBM for purchase.
My File Naming Quest Begins
Searching for a file on my computer sometimes was quite a challenge, especially as to how cryptic I had to be when I had only 8 digits to name a file. When Windows 98 came out, it was a game changer for file naming. We now had a limit of 255 characters to name something. Basically, unlimited for most of us, but… still a challenge when it came to searching for a file on my computer. Again, more time passes as I develop a way to refine name so that a search my now thousands of files without too much effort. A naming convention was becoming a must.
Structure of File Name
26 cubed = 17,576 (letters in the alphabet)
More story to come. Check back.