Re: appletalk and two GS's

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

Randy Shackelford <shack@onyx.southwind.net> wrote:

> Neil Parker (nparker@inferno.uoregon.edu) wrote:
> 
> : GS/OS includes the Appleshare FST for accessing networked drives over
> : Appletalk, but you can't share GS drives in this manner, because nobody
> : has ever written an Appleshare server that runs on the GS.  (I don't think
> : there's any technical reason why a GS Appleshare server couldn't be
> : written, but nobody's done so yet.)
> 
> Here's a technical reason: you can bring an 8 MHz Mac screeching to a halt
> with file sharing (or full blown Appleshare for that matter) without trying
> very hard. It wouldn't take much effort to do the same thing with a 2.5 MHz
> Apple II. I wouldn't be afraid to bet also that the IIgs AFP implementation
> wouldn't support it on top of that. I think David Empson has mentioned some-
> thing to that effect before.

I don't recall that exact statement.  I have speculated that an
AppleShare server implementation on the IIgs would have to take over the
entire machine (in the style of AppleShare 2.0 on a Mac).  It would not
be feasible to implement a file sharing implementation, like Mac System
7.x or AppleShare 3.0, partly for speed reasons, but also because of
multitasking limitations (maybe under GNO...).

It would also be necessary to extend the file system somewhat
(presumably with a desktop database like on the Mac) to hold the extra
information required by the server.  To be fully compatible with
AppleShare, it may be necessary to use HFS as the host file system,
which is a bit risky on the IIgs.

Ah - now I think I remember my previous statement: the IIgs
implementations of ASP and AFP (the top level AppleTalk protocols used
in server access) are client-only implementations.  However, this also
applies on the Mac.  The server implementations of these protocols would
have to be done as part of implementing the server software.

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