Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!syntron!jtsv16!uunet!super!udel!princeton!njin!rutgers!mailrus!purdue!decwrl!ucbvax!HNYKUN11.BITNET!U211344
From: U211344@HNYKUN11.BITNET (Olaf 'Rhialto' Seibert)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: PATH: and (pseudo)announcement of RDF:
Message-ID: <8810261438.AA14294@jade.berkeley.edu>
Date: 26 Oct 88 14:27:06 GMT
Article-I.D.: jade.8810261438.AA14294
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Lines: 58


The following is from the recently posted source of the PATH: handler,
Submitted by:   Rico Mariani <rmariani@watmum.waterloo.edu>

#define FH       struct FileHandle
#define PArg1    dospacket->dp_Arg1 /* oslt */
#define BTOC(x)  BADDR(x)           /* or something like that */

  FH *p;
  if (p = Open(buf1,PType)) {
      bmov(BTOC(p),BTOC(PArg1),sizeof(FH));
      FreeMem(BTOC(p),sizeof(FH));           /* <-- Note This */
  }
  else
      error = IoErr();

Are you sure that you free all the memory here, i.e. that the
FileHandle was not DosAllocMem()ed (using Arp lingo)? And if so,
how did you know without disassembling the DOS and/or using
other questionable practices ? :-)

The proper way to do it is, of course, send your own hand-made
DOS packet to the proper handler, asking it to fill in the
FileHandle (PArg1) for you. In that case, you save yourself a
rendez-vous with one icky BPTR.

Now we are talking about PATH: anyway... did everybody see that the
code to be added to Matt's original RAM disk is fairly minimal??
I would like to suggest that code like this could be added to the
*normal* file system in a next release, using one of those protection
bits.
In fact, if you have the code for a search-path-file, you almost have
symbolic links. These are even slightly simpler.
Isn't there a lot of room left in the file header block? That space
could also be used in the future for some useful information.

Now a pseudo-announcement...

I have written a RDF: handler. That is a Raw DFx: interface: it turns
your floppy (or your hard disk) into a sequential stream of bytes
(just like Unix :-). You can (with some minor limitations) Zoo to it,
for example, and have a *real* 880K Zoo archive on a single floppy.
You can disassemble the boot block directly from the disk, or
just look at it using TYPE <RDF: OPT H, and so on, and so on.
It is currently being tested. Hopefully out soon.

(BTW: Guess what happens if you stick a 'raw Zoo archive' in the drive
while Workbench is running.....)

Freely_Distributable=Greetings(Not_For_Any_Commercial_Purpose)->
        Olaf.Seibert;
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    +++ Let me tell you that I disclaim anything you care to name +++
 --- Olaf Rhialto Seibert the Marvellous --- U211344@hnykun11.bitnet ---
                         7167 BYTES FREE
*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*

(Yes: You get a disk icon with DF0:ZOO below it)