Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!oliveb!apple!mattd
From: mattd@Apple.COM (Matt Deatherage)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: resource forks vs. data forks
Message-ID: <30473@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 11 May 89 04:42:16 GMT
References: <890510184442.323472@DOCKMASTER.ARPA>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 28

[In response to questions about resource forks]

GS/OS allows for files to have both data forks and "resource forks".  In the
most basic explanation, it's a way to link two separate files together
logically with one file name.  The resource fork is used by the Resource
Manager to hold resources (new for 5.0), and the data fork is the normal
part of the file we've always known.  You can think of a regular file as
an "extended" (two-forked) file with an empty resource fork.

Actually, you can't quite do that physically.  Those familiar with ProDOS know
that the file system did not originally include any definitions for two-forked
files, so one was created for the ProDOS FST under GS/OS.  It uses ProDOS
storage type 5.  Because of this, ProDOS 8 applications can not work with
extended files.

This brief yet muddled overview can be supplanted by much better informatino
in "GS/OS Reference, Volume 1".


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