Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!haven!adm!smoke!gwyn From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: Apple CD-ROM,GS,Mac Message-ID: <13533@smoke.BRL.MIL> Date: 10 Aug 90 21:32:00 GMT References: <9008101615.AA22546@apple.com> Organization: U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, APG, MD. Lines: 36 In article <9008101615.AA22546@apple.com> MQUINN@UTCVM.BITNET writes: >As far as I know there are no Hi Sierra FST's for the GS. ?? What about the one shipped with GS/OS 5.whatever? >... but if there ARE those FST's in existance, I don't know how they'd >be used, ... I don't think you understand what FSTs do. If you insert an ISO std CD-ROM you should be able to (from Finder) click on the drive icon and see the folder open up as usual. There are some constraints on file names and file types, which have to be kludged a bit (Apple described this in some volume of the GS/OS Ref. Man.), but basically the whole point of an FST is to make sure you DON'T have to do anything special at the application or user level in order to access the files. >SCSI is the hardware that the fomatting/read/write commands have to travel >through. It's more a protocol for using the bus than it is the bus proper, although both have to be correct to implement the SCSI spec. >so a CD formatted for ms-dos or a mac, would be virtually useless on a GS >and TOTALLY useless to the PCT. The reason for developing the ISO CD-ROM standard was to ensure interchange of data between different operating systems via the CD media. If the MS/DOS or MacOS system happens to support (and USE) the ISO standard, then the disk should be interchangeable with systems like the IIGS that also support the standard. It's the fact that MS/DOS is a godawful mess that encourages the use of MS/DOS-specific filesystem formats there, although I've been told that many MS/DOS CD-ROMs are standard-conformant. I also hear that MacOS CD-ROMS are virtually universally HFS-formatted instead of standard. I don't know what to do about this situation other than to complain loudly about it and spec ISO conformance when writing procurement requirements.