This BioCompanion copy is a demo version .
Unfortunately, the use of computers requires that you will adhere to several conventions which might possibly render life difficult. The reasons for these restrictions in user names, node names or file names might be various:
The DOS and VMS operating systems are case-independent. File names and commands may be written in any case. UNIX and other operating systems take care of the case. The length of the file names is partially restricted. DOS adheres strictly to the 8+3 rule, this implies that you should not use long file names on your host computer if you want to share files between PC and host . User names are restricted in length on many operating systems, such as UNIX (8 characters).
The file 'extensions' (the part of the file name after the separating period) is frequently used as descriptor for the file contents. A .seq file is a sequence, and .txt files are text files. Whereas operating systems with graphical interfaces (such as Windows or Mac OS) additionally use Icons, many of the files in the host computer world are identified by extension. More recently, this has also become important in Networking as the WWW system may use these conventions to identify helper applications to be launched (such as a movie viewer or sound recorder).
The names of computers, printers etc. affect a larger community and, therefore, have to be unique and practical in daily use. Surveys have revealed that the node names 'Mac', 'Mickey' and 'Iris' have been chosen by tens of thousands of Internet users for their desktop computers. Once single 'domains' (such as university.edu or company.com) have many hosts and printers, a naming scheme is imperative in order to clearly assign the location and responsibilities if required. "Laser Writer" might sound nice but "LW-BIOZ-208" will better indicate that this Laser Writer is in a location "BIOZ" with an office "208".
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