Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL!TMPLee
From: TMPLee@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: resource forks, encore une fois
Message-ID: <890517140423.546278@DOCKMASTER.ARPA>
Date: 17 May 89 14:04:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 37

I'm still troubled by the compatibility problem of introducing resource
forks into ProDos.  (for one thing, all the statments made in the past
about the ProDos8, ProDos16, and GS/OS file systems being identical are
no longer true.)  someone's note about changing ECP16 to at least
recognize the critters prompts me to ask a few questions ...

1.  What happens when you are in old Basic.System and do a cat or
catalogue command?  What will it show for a file that has a resource
fork (i.e., storage type 5, I think someone said it was.)?

2.  When System Disk 5.0 comes out, exactly which files on it will in
fact be files with resource forks?  (I'm not a MAC user so I don't even
know the right vocabulary -- I am right, aren't I, however in that you
talk about such an animal as a SINGLE file that has two parts, the
resource fork and the data fork?)  Does anyone know of any applications
from third party vendors that will either use, be able to use,
recognize, or otherwise properly handle forked files?

3.  Will a new BackUpII be issued that can handle them?  (I don't
remember anymore whether BackUpII was block level or file level since I
never could get it to work properly; if it was block level then there is
no problem.)

4.  This really does sound like the most serious change to ProDos files
in the compatability area for a long time -- was there any special
effort made to inform the third party hardware and software vendors that
would be affected by it so that they could modify/upgrade their stuff
properly?  (I don't know of any hardware that might be affected, but I
can well imagine someone having something in on-card ROM or in utility
software furnished with a device that could be affected.)  I'm
especially concerned about hard-drive utilities -- there are several
available, as I've finally discovered, none, I repeat, none of the
useful ones from Apple or Claris -- how quickly are they going to be
re-issued to handle forked files?  Any guesses?  Until they are any
serious hard drive users are going to stay away from version 5.0.

TMPLee@dockmaster.ncsc.mil