(Excerpts from a message dated 10-30-99, Eddy Thilleman to Leonard
Erickson)

Hello Eddy--

LE> It'd also be nice if OS/2 could "borrow" a trick from Netware. Netware
LE> creates an 8.3 "alias" so that DOS programs *can* access such files.
LE> The problem is that the name is neither predictable nor "settable" (at
LE> least in my version of Netware).

ET>I have no reason to think it's technically impossible to write a
  >driver that does this or something like this. So I think it's
  >technically possible to write a driver that does this or something
  >like this.

    I don't think you meant "driver" in the "device driver" sense.
Perhaps you meant an application program to move files between HPFS and
FAT partitions without losing the long name in the process.  While I am
sure that you can write such a program (using existing OS/2 APIs), there
is no necessity to do so.  Unless, of course, you don't like mousing
around the desktop and do your serious computing from the command line.
In that case, you probably don't use long file names, no matter which
file system you are using, because they are a nuisance to enter from the
keyboard.

    As I told Leonard in an earlier post, you can move (or copy)
long-name files from HPFS partitions to FAT partitions, and recover the
long name when you move (or copy) them back to the HPFS partition, using
facilities that are already available in OS/2.  Move the "long name"
file to the FAT drive using the WPS.  The long name will be preserved in
the attached FAT EA file, and the system will assign an 8.3 name to the
FAT file directory entry.  If you don't like the assigned 8.3 name,
rename (from the command line) that directory entry to any 8.3 name you
wish that preserves the extension portion.  When you copy (or move) the
FAT file to an HPFS partition (using WPS), the original long name will
be restored.

    Regards,

        --Murray

___
 * MR/2 2.25 #120 * Never get carried away by a flood of logic

--- Maximus/2 2.02