From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!C70:info-cpm
Newsgroups: fa.info-cpm
Title: unix-like directory tree stuff for CP/M
Article-I.D.: ucb.1288
Posted: Sat Jun  5 00:28:11 1982
Received: Sat Jun  5 05:23:53 1982

>From lauren@Ucla-Security Sat Jun  5 00:27:51 1982
Good luck.  Be sure to keep in mind that once you leave the linear
directory structure, you are vulnerable to a whole new class
of problems... that's why Unix (and MARC) use a completely different
filesystem structure from CP/M.  Be sure to include utilities like
icheck, dcheck, ncheck, and clri to fix the sorts of problems that
will no doubt appear frequently, given the way CP/M manages its
free space.  You also might try reducing the minimum CP/M block
allocations size -- MARC uses 256 bytes which results in considerably
more useful space but (surprisingly) no measurable additional overhead
in most applications.

Interestingly, a technique such as you described was attempted and
rejected in an early pre-MARC system... the problems started to
outweigh the benefits pretty quickly.  One problem that you will
certainly face is that most CP/M programs are very strict about
the sorts of filenames they will accept, so you end up stuck with the
usual CP/M limitations, which aren't much fun.  There are a variety
of other pitfalls as well, all of which eventually led to the conclusion
that it was better to stop trying to build mountains on a foundation
of sand, scrap the CP/M filesystem completely, and implement a full
Unix filesystem from scratch -- which is how MARC ended up.

--Lauren--