Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!gatech!udel!new
From: new@udel.EDU (Darren New)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: A BIG apology and, hopefully, a useful suggestion...
Message-ID: <15007@louie.udel.EDU>
Date: 9 May 89 17:02:32 GMT
References: <14870@louie.udel.EDU> <17069@usc.edu> <18129@cup.portal.com>
Sender: usenet@udel.EDU
Reply-To: new@udel.EDU (Darren New)
Distribution: na
Organization: University of Delaware
Lines: 31

Rather than flame (or attempt to flame) CA for releasing the AmigaDOS
in BCPL, I think they should be applauded for having the rest of the
software so wonderfully flexible that something as fundamental
as the DOS can be replaced by something in an essentially 
incompatible language and still get out the door in any reasonable
amount of time.  Incredible!

My only regret is that I will probably never find out some of the 
nifty stuff undoubtable planned for the original AmigaDOS (hint, 
hint :-).  Seeing how much the filesystem on the Macintossed does
towards making the software work, I can only think two things:
1 - Imagine replacing the Mac filesystem with something unix-like and
still getting it out the door on time.  2 - What the Amiga could have
been with a file-system like the Macs.

In keeping with the subject line, I'll toss in my 2 cents for 1.4 wishlists:

Add a call to the filesystem that allows only the calling process to
have it's file reads/writes honored. I.e., allow a process to exclude
other processes from using the same filesystem, much like Forbod/Permit.
Then wrap LoadSeg in a FileForbid() / FilePermit() pair to stop the
thrashing when two programs are loaded simulatneously. Actually, I
guess you would want this to work on a volume. Allow the user
to do this so that loading (say) IFF files can avoid thrashing too.
Either that or make the trackbuffers (at least for floppies) actually
trackbuffers instead of sector buffers; then it would only thrash
once for each track instead of once for each sector.

(I wonder if C= people actually pay any attention to such suggestions)

-- Darren New -- University of Delaware