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

[CUTblakeney@home.com (Jeff Blakeney)]

On Thu, 9 Mar 2000 23:14:05 +1300, dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David
Empson) wrote:

>Ah, so it grows the root directory in the same manner as subdirectories.
>I don't think this is a very good idea - a fragmented root directory on
>a 5.25" disk (in particular) is not a good thing.  A better plan would
>be to create the root directory as a contiguous chunk, with a larger
>fixed limit, at the point the disk is erased or formatted.

I used to think that Apple was being pretty silly making the root
directory a fixed size seeing as sub-directories aren't limited in
this way.  After thinking about it for a long time, it seems to me
that by doing this they made it easier for them to write the boot
block code to find the PRODOS file and to write the PRODOS file's code
to find the first *.SYSTEM file.  This is because those pieces of code
know that they only have to look in blocks 2, 3, 4, 5 as those are the
only directory blocks in the root directory.

Extending the root directory could cause problems if PRODOS or the
*.SYSTEM file are not in the first four blocks of the directory.  It
just means that the disk will give you a message saying it can't find
PRODOS or a SYSTEM file when you boot it but it could definitely have
you scratching your head for a while trying to figure it out.  :-)

However, if people do want to extend their root directory (which I
also don't see much need for), they should also patch the boot block
and PRODOS so that they will search the entire directory for the
appropriate files as well.

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