Re: GS/OS: looking for info on VCB and FCB

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

Toinet <antoine.vignau@laposte.net> wrote:

> > Given that System 6.0.1 (with GS/OS 4.0.3, IIRC) is the last IIgs System
> > version, if anyone does manage to come up with documentation for its FST
> > layer, it might be feasible to write a third party one, as long as it
> > doesn't require any capabilities beyond what the current FSTs can do.
> 
> Nothing more than knowledge on VCR and FCR, the FST internal call
> entry point and the File System to implement.

Well, yes, but if the file system in question has capabilities beyond
those of existing ones, a new FST would have to limit itself to the
feature set already supported by GS/OS and applications.

When Apple introduced the HFS FST in System 6, they probably had to make
changes to GS/OS and Finder in order to accomodate it. (I'm not sure
what those changes might have been, but they might include dealing with
more metadata than ProDOS supports.)

GS/OS might also need to be patched just to recognise a new FST. For
example, does it have a table definining the known FSTs, mapping from
the FST's ID number to the name of the file system and/or FST, or does
it get all of this from the headers in the installed FSTs?

It would be great to have new FSTs for GS/OS. A read/write MS-DOS one in
particular would be very useful, given the almost universal adoption of
FAT16 as an interchange format.

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz