Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!farrier
From: farrier@Apple.COM (Cary Farrier)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: //gs Boot Blocks
Message-ID: <37554@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 2 Jan 90 18:42:54 GMT
References: <3388@sage.cc.purdue.edu> <0ZWjDCW00WAB00WG8F@andrew.cmu.edu> <4118@puff.cs.wisc.edu> <37432@apple.Apple.COM> <4136@puff.cs.wisc.edu> <37492@apple.Apple.COM> <4145@puff.cs.wisc.edu>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 49

In article <4145@puff.cs.wisc.edu> blochowi@rt5.cs.wisc.edu (Jason Blochowiak) writes:
>	Oh, now this is interesting - are you saying that ProDOS 8 will
>allow for different file systems? If not, then paying attention to non-ProDOS
>file system conventions would seem to be pointless for the boot block.
	
	No Comment.  Remember, however, that the boot blocks produced
	by the ProDOS FST changed, and it could be possible that they
	may change again.  That is why the boot block should be left
	alone.

>
>	As for a more elegant solution - I'd be interested in hearing about
>it. The boot block installation is very minor surgery (remember all those
>posts about getting Bird's [sp?] Better Bye into ProDOS 8?), whereas modifying
>something else would be more of a pain, and would almost certainly be version
>dependent. Besides, how many more steps are there that are common? As I
>understand it, the (standard) boot block finds & loads *:ProDOS, which, in the
>case of P8, is the entire OS, and in the case of GS/OS, is a loader of some
>sort. If this is correct, then the ways the OSes boot diverges right after
>the boot block, and a common intercept point would be rather difficult to
>find.

	I was thinking along the lines of replacing the *:ProDOS file.
	The format of the file would be irrelevant, so you wouldn't need
	to go to the block level, the modification could be done at a
	higher level.  One way would be to rename the original *:ProDOS
	file to ProDOS.GSOS, then create a new ProDOS file which checks
	to see whether you want to go to P8 or GS/OS, and take the
	appropriate action.
>
>	Please note that I understand the point you're making, but I can't
>see a better way, and waiting 25 seconds per boot is horrendous when working
>on a P8 program that crashes regularly... P8 loads nice & quick off my HD
>with SB 8/16, and my cycle isn't stretched as much by waiting.
>--
>      Jason Blochowiak - blochowi@garfield.cs.wisc.edu or jason@madnix.uucp
>       "Education, like neurosis, begins at home." - Milton R. Sapirstein


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