Re: Going past the 51 file limit, other than GEOS?

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

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

>Obsbedia2 <obsbedia2@aol.com> wrote:
>
>> Qfix allows ProDOS file names that use any ascii characters, but has anyone
>> tried to allow ProDOS to handle more that 51 files on the main directory?
>
>What do you have against subdirectories?
>
>I'd be surprised if GEOS could let you get past this limit, since it
>uses ProDOS.

GEOS gets past this limit.  The behavior is that if you put
the 52nd file onto disk and then the 53rd and so on and
then delete all the files, you can then use the disk with
other ProDOS programs and the OTHER ProDOS programs
can then put the same amount of files (52, 53, etc.) on the
disk.

>The standard size of the root directory on all ProDOS volumes is four
>blocks.  The directory holds 13 entries per block, except for the first
>block, which holds 12 entries.  13 * 3 + 12 = 51.
>
>In theory, it is possible to create a ProDOS volume with a nonstandard
>root directory size (there are link fields in each block, after all).
>The most well-known examples of this are /RAM and the AppleWorks 1.x/2.x
>5.25" disks, which have a single block (limit of 12 files) for the root
>directory.

My theory is that GEOS is doing this dynamically.  The
evidence comes from the fact that the directory size
change sticks when the disk is used by normal ProDOS
programs.