Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!amdcad!sun!imagen!atari!apratt
From: apratt@atari.UUCP (Allan Pratt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Problem with TOS recognizing media changes
Keywords: Media change, Gulam
Message-ID: <1442@atari.UUCP>
Date: 7 Apr 89 19:33:59 GMT
References: <493@ultb.UUCP> <3938@druwy.ATT.COM> <330@laas.laas.fr>
Reply-To: apratt@atari.UUCP (Allan Pratt)
Organization: Atari (US) Corporation, Sunnyvale, California
Lines: 27

In article <330@laas.laas.fr> ralph@nastassia.laas.fr writes:
> I often pop in and out floppy disks while running gulam.  This media
> change problem does hit me from time to time when I want to access a
> sub directory on A:.  Is there any way for to reread the disk?  An 
> 'ls -l' does correctly show the root directory.  Is there any other
> solution to quitting gulam, clicking in GEM, and restarting gulam?

Gulam has a feature whereby it caches directories.  There should
be validation of the directory cache via a Mediach() call on the
pertinent device, but there isn't.  This is strictly Gulam's
fault.

Gulam's directory handling is really bad:  ever try "ls -lt" on
a directory with, say, 100 files?  It takes a LONG time.  That
time is not sorting; it's making two or three Fsfirst calls
for each file.  Fortunately, if you use TOS 1.4 and add directory
buffers, it doesn't hit the disk 300+ times...  The trouble is,
the code is so convoluted I can't hope to improve it.  

I am really sorry Gulam is so good: it prevents me from writing a proper
shell.  Gulam's bugs are irritating, but the bulk of it is too good to
junk.  (Well, specifically, the code is badly unstructured and virtually
impossible to analyze, troubleshoot, and improve.)

============================================
Opinions expressed above do not necessarily	-- Allan Pratt, Atari Corp.
reflect those of Atari Corp. or anyone else.	  ...ames!atari!apratt