Re: MS-DOS FST?

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

In article <1993May1.145408.25982@ornl.uucp> jlcooper@sacam.OREN.ORTN.EDU (Jonathan L Cooper) writes:
> So, did anyone but me think that Jim Murphy seems to have implied rather
> indirectly that the MS-DOS FST will not be read-only?

No.  My impression is that he implied that the MS-DOS FST would be
able to read files created by Macintosh PC Exchange, which is what I
would expect.

> He suggested that the FST will handle 800K MS-DOS format disks.  If this
> is true, the only way to format such a disk would be on an Apple IIgs.  PC
> exchange on the mac only wants to format 720K, and doesn't seem to support
> 800K disks.  IBM hardware doesn't support it.

Ever heard of a PC Transporter?  Jim was saying that the MS-DOS FST
didn't care what type of device you used.  If you somehow managed to
get an MS-DOS directory structure onto that device, the FST would be
able to read files from it.

> He also talks about resource fork support.  If the FST will be read-only,
> the only reason to bother implementing the code will be pulling mac
> TrueType fonts off of MS-DOS disks.  :)

Any Mac file that has a resource fork will retain it if copied to a PC
disk using PC Exchange.  This means that you can use a Mac to copy any
file to a PC disk, then read it on the IIgs (given a SuperDrive) and
both forks will be retained.

I have no idea why anyone would want to do this, rather than using a
standard 800k HFS or ProDOS disk!
-- 
David Empson                                                               
dempson@swell.actrix.gen.nz    <--- Note my new E-Mail address!            
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand