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From: blochowi@rt3.cs.wisc.edu (Jason Blochowiak)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: FST's
Message-ID: <3762@puff.cs.wisc.edu>
Date: 17 Nov 89 01:39:28 GMT
References: <2634.cortland.info-apple@pro-houston> <5205@internal.Apple.COM>
Sender: news@puff.cs.wisc.edu
Reply-To: blochowi@rt3.cs.wisc.edu (Jason Blochowiak)
Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept
Lines: 40

In article <5205@internal.Apple.COM> farrier@Apple.COM (Cary Farrier) writes:
>In article <2634.cortland.info-apple@pro-houston> dkl@pro-houston.cts.com (David Karl Leikam) writes:
>> [I deleted his article - he was asking about FSTs reason for existance]
>	*Using* an FST is _not_ the same as *writing* an FST!  One of the
>intracacies of creating an FST involves how closely it interacts with
>the rest of the OS.  Sometimes these details change in an OS revision.  When
>this happens, we can update the FSTs, but we can't update a 3d party FST.

	If everything were "the way it should be" GS/OS and the FSTs wouldn't
be interdependent like they (apparently) are. GS/OS would serve as a front
end, basically, to the FSTs. The application would make a call to GS/OS, which
would figure out if 1) A device driver should handle the call, 2) GS/OS itself
should handle the call, or 3) A FST should handle the call. Just as GS/OS
provides some primitives for device drivers, it would provide some primitives
for the FSTs - say, keeping track of lists of open files, which FST is
responsible for them, etc. If the interaction were nice and neat (not an
impossibility), then 3rd party FSTs would become completely possible.

	I'm not aware of the details regarding the time requirements the
OS design crew was under, but that's not what bugs me. What bugs me is that
it seems that the folks from Apple that are active on the net are saying
"There's nothing wrong with this." Perhaps I'm misinterpreting what they're
saying, or perhaps it's just a defensive reaction - I dunno. But, if someone
from Apple were to say "Yes, by gosh, the way FSTs were implemented was a
design botch." I, for one, would shut up about them (except, perhaps for a
"Well, now the mistake has been recognized, will it be fixed?" ;). Of course,
despite the fact that FSTs, as implemented, don't provide a file system
panacea, they still are useful in terms of letting the user select the
amount of memory/disk space that will be used by them (as Dave Lyons, methinks,
pointed out).

	Anyone with the urge to flame me should probably do so by email.

> [Deleted paragraph with an analogy]
>Cary Farrier


--
      Jason Blochowiak - blochowi@garfield.cs.wisc.edu or jason@madnix.uucp
       "Education, like neurosis, begins at home." - Milton R. Sapirstein