[ale] instruction needed

[danscox at mindspring.com (Danny Cox)]

Sean,

On Wed, 2004-01-14 at 12:54, Sean Kilpatrick wrote:
> Okay, time for the next lesson:
> What's a "major/minor device number"?
> 
> Sean,

	What they all said is true.

	But this is, IMHO, one of the basic ideas of UNIX/Linux: *everything*
is a file.

	Using these "special files", one can open, read, write, and close them,
WITHOUT ACTUALLY KNOWING THAT THEY'RE NOT FILES.  There are some
exceptions, of course.  You can randomly seek about in a file, but not a
character device (how would you 'seek' on a keyboard?).

P.S. I've not forgotten about your earlier question: still researching.
;-)

-- 
kernel, n.: A part of an operating system that preserves the
medieval traditions of sorcery and black art.

Danny