Re: Prodos Vs. Dos 3.3

["Tom Zuchowski" <tjz@mindspring.com>]

If you are SURE that you will NEVER use anything but 5.25 floppies, then
there isn't a whole lot if difference between DOS 3.3 and ProDOS.  DOS 3.3
gives you about 10% more free RAM under Applesoft if you have 3 file
buffers open.  ProDOS is faster than DOS 3.3 but Diversi-DOS is just as
fast as ProDOS.  ProDOS is a LOT slower than Diversi-DOS if you use folders
because of all the seeks.  I once counted 17 seeks while writing a 1-block
file to a folder on a 5.25 drive!

If you have 48K Apple II's in your user mix and everyone has 5.25 drives,
I'd go with Diversi-DOS.  If all the users have 64K and some don't have
5.25's, then ProDOS is the best route.  The other possibility is to write
your code so it works under both DOS 3.3 and ProDOS and use Copy II+ to
transfer files between the two systems as required.

TomZ


Rob Kopp <rkopp@PioneerPlanet.infi.net> wrote in article
<32724EC0.C1E@PioneerPlanet.infi.net>...
> Ok, I may be in line for correction here, but here goes.  Is there any
> real advantage to Prodos for floppy disk based Apple ]['s?  I know the
> speed advantage can be made up with modification of 3.3 (Beagle
> Brother's etc.) so that doesn't wash.  I speculate that Prodos was
> really concieved for hard drive mass storage with it's
> directory/subdirectory file structure.