Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!lll-winken!decwrl!purdue!sage.cc.purdue.edu!aj0
From: aj0@sage.cc.purdue.edu (Eric Mulholland)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: IIgs Software Reboot
Message-ID: <3389@sage.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 17 Dec 89 07:41:19 GMT
References: <3388@sage.cc.purdue.edu> <0ZWjDCW00WAB00WG8F@andrew.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: aj0@sage.cc.purdue.edu (Eric Mulholland)
Organization: Purdue University
Lines: 26

In article bh1e+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU (Brendan Gallagher Hoar) writes:
>Apple changed the boot block on system 5.0 to allow the loading of
>sparse PRODOS files.
>I wanted to use Smartboot 8/16, but was afraid that the boot block that
>it installs might cause the system to break  (or, said correctly, i was
>afraid that the boot block that allows the choice between Pro 8 and
>GS/OS would not work with later version of GS/OS).
>If someone could explore the problems and possibilities of adding the
>new boot block code to Smartboot 8/16, I'd appreciate it!

    No one says that once smartboot 8/16 is installed that it cannot be
removed if or when the system changes to make misfunction.  As mentioned,
the listing for it is included in the article, so by simply changing the
code to handle sparse files, no problem.
    I was curious to what the change to the boot block is and now read
that it's for sparse file handling.  When would the ProDOS file need to
be sparsed?  The only reason I can come up with why is the quit code for
ProDOS 8.  But IF that code was improved to be more "user friendly" than
this enter pathname stuff, than the extra space causing the sparseness
would be used up, for a good cause.
    Seriously, why would a prodos file need to be sparsed?
-- 
     ____
 Y_,_|[]|   Eric Mulholland
{|_|_|__|   aj0@sage.cc.purdue.edu
//oo--OO    ...!pur-ee!sage.cc!aj0