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From: aglew@ccvaxa.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga
Subject: Re: Orphaned Response
Message-ID: <26600031@ccvaxa>
Date: Tue, 20-May-86 12:37:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: ccvaxa.26600031
Posted: Tue May 20 12:37:00 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 25-May-86 16:58:32 EDT
References: <1091@amiga.amiga.UUCP>
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Nf-ID: #R:amiga.amiga.UUCP:1091:ccvaxa:26600031:000:1051
Nf-From: ccvaxa.UUCP!aglew    May 20 11:37:00 1986


>/* Written 12:12 pm  May  9, 1986 by bruceb@amiga.UUCP */
>
>>I don't know of any DOS that doesn't allow unlimited directory sizes, [...]
>	Apple-][ DOS (not Prodos), TRS-DOS, CP/M, MS-DOS (setable, but finite)
						  ^^^^^^
>--Bruce Barrett

Only the root directory on MS-DOS has a limited number of files (settable
in the Media Parameter Block).

Subdirectories are structured like any other files, and can be any length
that while fit on your disk. Not that you'd like to wait for the sequential
scans, though - I once improved compilation time 30% on a large PC DOS
system by splitting the project up into 4 subdirectories, and sorting the
entries in the directory by frequency of use (put stdio.h first!).
I suspect that these abysmal search times are what prompted Metacomco to try
hashed directories - that, and the ever-present desire to try something neat
out.

Incidentally, MS-DOS files are linear linked lists, so seeking from the
start of a file can involve `looking' at all the blocks - except that this
is done in one fixed size map.