Retained objects and operating system interfaces
K. Hopper · The Computer Journal · 1981
The general nature of all types of object which a user may wish to retain between computing sessions is shown to be that of a file. The requirement that a transportable control language provide identical semantic effects everywhere leads to the idea of a universal file system. The specification of a file in such a system is discussed before considering the effects of widely varying underlying file systems on the mappings and facilities needed in a control language processor to support such a universal file system. Discussion of file manipulations and network connection requirements completes the design requirements for the use of retained objects in a control language processor.