Partitions, and semantics

[xmastree]

I was helping a friend fix his computer recently, and something he said made me think.

Partitions. We all know what they are, right? He said his disk had three partitions, but I noticed it was four and pointed this out.

Interestingly, he thought the partition wasn't the area of the disk, but the dividing line between them. So, one disk divided into four areas by three partitions.

After all, a partition in a room is the wall itself, not the spaces on either side.

[Omega]

If you're talking about partitions, why did you bring up symantics?

[Rankenphile]

Not Symantec, the AV software guys, but rather semantics - the study of meaning.

I see what you meant, though. I can make one cut, or partition, in a pie and end up with two pieces. Two cuts, three pieces. Right? Well, the partition you're missing is the last one. A disk with only one partition is one disk - the partition tells the disk where the end is, forcing it to start after the partition itself to create the next part. Since there is nothing after that part, you end up with two disks, effectively - one which is the entirety of your HDD, and a second of zero.

However, a partition has come to mean, in this sense, the actual free space between the divisions. It really is a matter of semantics, however. Either way, you've got four disk sections.

[Omega]

Not Symantec, the AV software guys, but rather semantics - the study of meaning.

Oh.

[AKA_RA]

that went way over my head at first, but now your making perfect sense.....i think

[Cevinzol]

Tell your friend he has to think like a Taoist.
A partition is...

"Like a vessel, its not the clay that is important, rather its the emptiness that it surrounds."

Now run along young grasshopper
[I have to contemplate my navel]

[xmastree]

However, a partition has come to mean, in this sense, the actual free space between the divisions.

Yep. Especially as the partitioning software asks you how big to make the partition, rather than where to put it.