Re: can DOS 3.3 sector be larger than 256 bytes?

[nparker@cie-2.uoregon.edu (Neil Parker)]

In article <37uk48$5it@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu> Robert Jensen <jensen@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu> writes:
>There are two bytes in the DOS 3.3 volume table of contents that
>hold the number of bytes per sector.  Does DOS 3.3 use this value
>for anything, or does it just assume 256 bytes per sector?  Is that
>part of the VTOC just there for compatibility with some never
>realized upgrade?

I think that number gets used for a few calculations, but much of DOS 3.3
simply assumes that all sectors are 256 bytes long.  For example, all the
internal sector buffers are 256 bytes long, and can't be enlarged.

>I created a DOS partition on a SCSI disk and I would use 512 byte
>sectors if this is possible.  I could create a larger DOS disk that
>way.  I patched into the RWTS routine and everything works just
>fine, but I am only using 256 bytes of every SCSI block. (I have
>a II+ and still use a Merlin assembler that predates ProDOS.)

Have you considered using the second half of those blocks as a second DOS 3.3
volume?

               - Neil Parker
--
Neil Parker               | I saw old Autumn in the misty morn
nparker@cie-2.uoregon.edu | Stand shadowless like silence, listening
nparker@cie.uoregon.edu   | To silence.  -- Thomas Hood (1799-1845)