Re: DOS 3.3 VTOC Puzzle: Precise Meaning of "Last Track Allocated"

[Andy McFadden <fadden@fadden.com>]

jutland1916@hotmail.com wrote:
> Andy I'm sorry, I don't mean to be dense, but I don't follow what you
> mean:
> 
>>The field is usually ignored by disk utilities, which just pack the
> files
>> in any way they see fit.  It's just an optimization that may or may
> not
>> be useful.  If it's wrong, it's ignored.
> 
> Is "field" the same as track or sector?

I'm using "field" to refer to a value in the VTOC.  For example, the
VTOC has a field indicating the catalog track, a field indicating the
first catalog sector, and so on.

In this specific instance, I'm saying that the VTOC "last track allocated"
value will only have meaning in certain circumstances, e.g. a relatively
pristine DOS 3.3 disk.  If somebody copied files onto the disk with,
say, Copy ][+, the value will probably be inaccurate, because programs
that don't use the DOS 3.3 file manager to allocate sectors may or may
not update it.

I can guarantee that CiderPress doesn't update it.

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