Re: BOOT?

[dalloff@gcfn.org (Dave Althoff Jr)]

David Empson (dempson@actrix.gen.nz) wrote:

: ProDOS: the boot sector loads sector 1, which consists of the second
: half of block 0.  When put together with the boot ROM, there is enough
: code in 512 bytes to move the head and read arbitrary blocks from the
: disk.  The PRODOS file is read into memory and executed.

: ProDOS's equivalent of RWTS is the 5.25" driver, which is part of the
: PRODOS file (kernel).  It isn't used during the boot process, until the
: kernel starts running and loads the startup application and/or other
: initialization files such as ATINIT.

So...does that mean that PRODOS has to be in an arbitrary location on the
disk, or somewhere on Track 0?  Or is the root directory entry somewhere
in the first eight blocks so that the loader can know where to seek to in
order to find it?

Then too, I'm guessing that the ProDOS kernel is probably a little smaller
than  DOS 3.3 because it is a bit stripped down, as it does not contain
the usual I/O patches and command interpreter that make up a certain
amount of the DOS overhead.  I think there are something like three
sectors of DOS (in the vicinity of Track $02 Sector $02) given over to the
commands and the error messages...

--Dave Althoff, ][.
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