Bryan Parkoff wrote:
As for actual file system support, it should have P8 and Smartport compatibility, original HFS and possibly FAT16.Now the questions arise.Right. I think by adding HFS to the list, you've "blown the budget". This is no longer a simple extension. FAT16 may also be in this category. Even increasing the maximum size of a ProDOS(+) volume may be well beyond the scope of a "simple extension".I try to remember. Beneath to ProDOS manual states to limit 65,536 blocks per volume. I think that ProDOS is designed to read only 8 bit width byte. The free space sector contains 256 bytes as the main sector. It may be interpreted as low byte of block. One byte is read in the main sector and is then read sub-sector. The sub-sector has second free space sector which it contains another 256 bytes. One byte in the sub-sector is interpreted as high byte of block. You put together high byte and low byte into 16 bit width word. It is how main sector and sub-sector translate to block by block. I can't remember exactly to be correct when you can confirm what you read Beneath of ProDOS manual. If you wish to enhance ProDOS and be back compatible to ProDOS 8, maybe you can change from 8 bit width byte to 16 bit width word. It allows main sector to expand to 16 bit width word and does the sub-sector. It would bring 4,294,967,296 blocks as large volume is to be 2 TeraByte total.
I don't think so. To allow ProDOS 8 to read other non-standard devices requires a separate driver and translation code. This is why the suggestion of P8 compatible was made. The only real compatibility needed would be to read P8 and perhaps GSOS forked files or devices. Anything else would actually be up to whomever developed the OS.
Cheers, Mike T