Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cwjcc!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!UIAMVS.BITNET!AWCTTYPA From: AWCTTYPA@UIAMVS.BITNET ("David A. Lyons") Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: GS/OS FSTs, Desktop/Finder, etc Message-ID: <8903171111.aa07585@SMOKE.BRL.MIL> Date: 17 Mar 89 15:51:00 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 61 >Date: Thu, 16 Mar 89 17:47:05 GMT >From: Kareth >Subject: Re: why Finder replaced Desktop; large HDs > >[...] I'm interested in why Apple chose to make something new that >offers less in window opening speed, size of information, etc. when >they could have taken work previously done and bring it to GS/OS. As Matt pointed out in another note, the old Desktop is _not_ something that Apple wrote in the first place. The Finder is a completely separate product, but it _is_ what you get when you take the same ideas and use GS/OS, the super-hires display, follow actual human interface guidelines, etc. >Okay, picky, picky :-) I didn't mean PRO.FST wasn't a real GS/OS >fst. I meant it doesn't support everything GS/OS can. In a sense, >PRO.FST might be considered to be a foreign translator, that >unfortunately, we have to use until we get our native translator, >GSOS.FST. I understand the other stuff, guess I just didn't make >myself clear. First, I endorse Matt's comments in another note. There is no reason to expect (or even _want_) Apple to invent a brand new file system just for GS/OS. I don't feel at all unfortunate to have a ProDOS FST for GS/OS; without it, I would be unable to read or write ProDOS-format disks. The word "ProDOS" in "ProDOS FST" refers to the format of the information stored on a disk, the ProDOS _file system_, and _not_ to any operating system that also happens to be called ProDOS. In other words, the ProDOS FST is a written-from-scratch piece of code which takes full advantage of the 65816. As I think I said in a previous note, _every_ FST will impose restrictions on filenames, volume size, etc. That's okay. I don't see a need for a new file system to be invented at this time, since existing ones are good: It would be reasonable for Apple to release an HFS FST to let us read and write disks in Hierarchical Filing System Format, as usually used with the Macintosh. HFS does not have a 32M volume size limit (what _is_ its limit, folks?), and it is much more efficient than the ProDOS format when you have long directories. Apple has never promised to release an HFS FST, and I don't if they're working on one. My best guess is that they are, but that they're taking the time to get it perfect. HFS is a much trickier file system to implement than ProDOS, and releasing an FST with any serious bugs would be a mistake on a scale that the mind cannot comfortably comprehend. [To paraphrase someone from Ghostbusters: "This twinkie represents the normal amount of hostile energy among Apple IIgs users. If a volume-munching FST was released, this would be a twinkie over 500 feet long."] --David A. Lyons bitnet: awcttypa@uiamvs DAL Systems CompuServe: 72177,3233 P.O. Box 287 GEnie mail: D.LYONS2 North Liberty, IA 52317 AppleLinkPE: Dave Lyons