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From: nicholaA@moravian.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: why Finder replaced Desktop; large HDs
Message-ID: <8903171135.AA18592@batman.moravian.edu>
Date: 17 Mar 89 11:35:25 GMT
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Lines: 63

Dave Lyons = >>
Kareth     = >

>>EH?  GS/OS is perfectly "true" right now.  Partitions are not limited

>I shudda had a fst after GS/OS.  Further explanation at bottom.

>>to 32 Megs except under ProDOS.  If and when FSTs are available for

>Which is all we have cept for a High Sierra.

>>non-ProDOS file systems (other than High Sierra, which intended for
>>compact disks and is read-only), there is no reason to doubt that
>>the current SCSI card will be able to handle them.  It requires a
>>loaded driver (SCSI.DRIVER) anyway, so I don't forsee any problems.

>Okay, sounds good.

>>By the way, the ProDOS FST (PRO.FST) _is_ a "real GS/OS FST."  All
>>FSTs impose file-system-specific limitations on things like volume
>>size, file size, valid characters in filenames, maximum length of
>>filenames, 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.

Um, no... the ProDOS File System Translator (FST) provided with GS/OS 2.0
on System Disk 4.0 *IS* a native translator.  It's as native as we'll have
for a while because ProDOS has been the native filing system for the
Apple II for 5 years now.  The FST itself is written (from what I understand
at the briefing given at AppleFest to the public by Rob Turner, the guy who
wrote it) in all 65816 code, unlike the previous ProDOS/16, which had a core
of ProDOS/8 through which it passed calls.

I don't think we're looking for a "GSOS.FST" -- what we're looking for is
the Hierarchical Filing System FST (HFS FST) and AppleShare FST.  Even
without those 2 FST's, I don't think that GS/OS can be faulted for
not having a "native" FST.  It does.  It's ProDOS.

As far as an FST which could provide everything that GS/OS allows for -- I
don't think the filing system yet exists that can press GS/OS to it's
absolute limits.  Perhaps I am wrong, but the HFS FST will probably come
closest if anything can.  After all, the maximum size for a volume under HFS
is 4 Gigabytes, right?

I believe that "System 7.0" on the Mac is supposed to finally catch up to
where we are with GS/OS with File System Translators built into the OS,
correct?

>kareth.

andy

----
Andy Nicholas                     CsNET: shrinkit@moravian.edu
Box 435, Moravian College      InterNET: shrinkit%moravian.edu@relay.cs.net 
Bethlehem, PA  18018                     liberty!batman!shrinkit@sun.com
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