Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!samsung!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!rpi!uwm.edu!uwvax!astroatc!nicmad!madnix!jason
From: jason@madnix.UUCP (Jason Blochowiak)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: //gs Boot Blocks
Message-ID: <1026@madnix.UUCP>
Date: 4 Jan 90 09:38:48 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> <37554@apple.Apple.COM>
Reply-To: jason@madnix.UUCP (Jason Blochowiak)
Organization: ARP Software, Madison, WI
Lines: 30

In article <37554@apple.Apple.COM> farrier@Apple.COM (Cary Farrier) writes:
[I wrote]
>>	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. [Reminds us that the ProDOS boot block changed, and should
>	be left alone]

	[I asked about a more elegant solution than replacing the boot block]

>	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 [...]

	Although the *:ProDOS file would be loaded in without any attention
to disk format, there still wouldn't be any file-level services available to
the alternate loader (or are there?). As such, the new *:ProDOS would still
have to access the volume at a block level. Although installing an alternate
*:ProDOS file is slightly cleaner than installing an alternate boot block,
it doesn't seem to address the block level access problem.

>| Cary Farrier				| Internet  : farrier@apple.com   |


-- 
  Jason Blochowiak - jason@madnix.UUCP (blochowi@garfield.cs.wisc.edu is dead)
       "Education, like neurosis, begins at home." - Milton R. Saperstein