Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cbmvax!rutgers!apple!keith From: keith@Apple.COM (Keith Rollin) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Re: GS/OS Questions Message-ID: <17436@apple.Apple.COM> Date: 20 Sep 88 19:14:10 GMT References: <8809191639.aa00747@SMOKE.BRL.MIL> Reply-To: keith@apple.com.UUCP (Keith Rollin) Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA Lines: 49 In article <8809191639.aa00747@SMOKE.BRL.MIL> V112PDL5@UBVMS.BITNET writes: > > According to press releases GS/OS now supports disk formats other >than ProDOS. Okay, which of the following (if any) does it support >DOS 3.3, Pascal, Mac HS >FS, or MS-DOS. We know it supports some obscure ISO format. GS/OS ships supporting the ProDOS and High Sierra (ISO-9660 CD-ROM) formats. It also supports character devices with a Console FST that handles screen output and keyboard input. > Given that Apple is shipping a utility that (paraphrazing) creatstes >partitions of differtrent OSs on hard disks, will it work with non-Apple >drives? (CMSA260s for instance) And given that, will partitions greater >than 32 megabytes be supported? Will ProDOS 8 applications be able to >read them or just "AppleShare Aware" programs? Volumes of greater than 32Meg ARE supported by GS/OS, per se, but NOT by the ProDOS FST that most people will be using. This is due to limitations of the ProDOS system since it was created. However, the limit on file and volume sizes imposed by GS/OS is something like 4 GBytes!!! This means that you can also access filing systems like High Sierra and HFS that can create volumes and files of this size. > Whlhile I'm at it in what ways will system 4.0 increase program speed? >Is it merely disk access or have the Tools been revamped again? >Does it support disk caching? How fast is the new Finder's interface >and why is it faster? Is ProDOS as a name dead? GS/OS is shorter but >has an annoying and unsightly slash in it. Reminds me of OS/2. Uggh! GS/OS improves only file access. Booting is faster, loading and running of files is faster, loading of tools and fonts are faster, loading of DAs is faster, etc. Also, I believe that the Console driver is faster than the Text Tools, so if you write your programs to use that, text display should also be faster. Disk caching is supported. A disk's directory is ALWAYS cached, while other blocks are stored in a cache of variable and settable size (there is a DA that will let you determine this). > > -mark Keith Rollin amdahl\ Developer Technical Support pyramid!sun !apple!keith Apple Computer decwrl/ "You can do what you want to me, but leave my computer alone!"