Re: GSOS and ProDOS16

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

Slick <Slick_RCBD@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Does anyone know where I could get a copy of ProDOS 16 with MouseDesk?

Not legally.  MouseDesk was included on IIgs System Software versions
2.0 and earlier.  My original system disk isn't even called "IIgs System
Software" - its title is "MouseDesk 2.0".  System 1.1 and 2.0 renamed
MouseDesk to "Apple II Desktop".

The Finder was introduced by System 3.1 (possibly in 3.0, but I never
saw that version - it may have been an internal release only).  I didn't
join APDA or get into native IIgs programming until System 3.2 came out,
so my knowledge of earlier releases is somewhat sparse.

System 3.2 was the last version that included ProDOS-16 (version 1.6).

System 4.0 was the first release of GS/OS (version 2.0).  It was
otherwise nearly identical to System 3.2, and had some features missing,
e.g. AppleShare client support.

> I wish Apple would release the source code for GS/OS, so perhaps someone
> could make the DOS 3.3 FST, as well as the Pascal and MS-DOS FST read
> and write.

The MS-DOS FST would be a useful one, but the DOS 3.3 and Pascal FSTs
are intended for use as migration tools only.

The DOS 3.3 and Pascal file systems are not flexible enough to be able
to store arbitrary GS/OS files, without doing some ugly hacks.  (No
subdirectories is the least of the problems - the main one is lack of
resource forks and limited file type and date handling.)

The Pascal file system also requires rather weird features like support
for "crunching" files (all files must be contiguous, and must be
physically moved on the volume to allow unused regions to be merged).

DOS 3.3 would be less of a problem, but it would require a nonstandard
extension to the file system to allow for extra features required by
GS/OS.  The alternative would be to do a limited FST that can only be
used to write "native" DOS 3.3 files.  However, I imagine that Apple
discounted this idea as being too difficult for a naive user to cope
with.

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand