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- Path: news.mountain.net!usenet
- From: gene_heskett@wvlink.mpl.com (Gene Heskett)
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
- Subject: Re: Protection bits
- Date: 13 Jan 96 17:22:17 +0500
- Organization: MountainNet, Inc. Morgantown WV 800.444.1458
- Message-ID: <2902.6586T1042T898@wvlink.mpl.com>
- References: <DKyoqJ.Lnu@csc.liv.ac.uk>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: slip5.mpl.com
- X-Newsreader: THOR 2.22 (Amiga;TCP/IP)
-
- SM> In article <john.hendrikx.44q1@grafix.xs4all.nl>,
- SM> john.hendrikx@grafix.xs4all.nl (John Hendrikx) writes:
- >> In a message of 06 Jan 96 Michael Van Elst wrote to All:
- >>
- >> >> I'd like to see a new set of flags, or somekind of ID stored with
- >> >> each file which tells you the filetype. In other words taking the
- >> >> 'e' and 's' bit concepts one step further.
- [snip]
- >> 512 bytes might not be sufficient to make a FileID...
-
- I don't know why not. Lemme use an opsys I am *truely* familiar with, #os9#
- as the demo here. There, the directories are much more compact at $20 bytes
- per entry. Of these, 29. bytes are for the filename string, the final 3 are
- the truncated absolute address of the file descriptor sector. A final $00
- is appended to that and a seek to that absolute address on the media puts it
- at the first byte of that file descriptor sector. The first $10 bytes of
- that sector define the files attributes (1 byte and a limitation of sorts),
- then owners user ID (2 bytes), last modified dates (5 bytes), link count
- (1byte), size (4 bytes) and the date of creation (3 bytes). The remaining
- 240 bytes are assigned in groups of 5, the first 3 for the truncated
- absolute sector location on the media, and the next 2 for how many
- contiguous sectors starting at that address belong to this file.
-
- With 48 "segments" of $FFFF sectors capable of being maped to a single
- file, there really isn't a file size limitation other than the 4 byte size.
- If I were redoing that opsys today, I would only change one thing based on
- personal prefs. I'd reduce the user number to a byte sized value, and use
- the other byte for additional file attribute flags. 8 is not enough IMHO.
-
- SM> Why not store this infomation in the file's .info file?
-
- SM> This kind of auto-recognition of files isn't a feature you would
- SM> expect a command line shell to have --- it's a bit too high
- SM> level for that IMHO.
-
- Imateriel, (sp?)
- Since it should be part of the opsys itself, its duty is to tell the shell
- via any error messages whether the shell can do that to the file or not.
-
- SM> But the GUI is intended as a 'high-level' interface which goes out
- SM> of it's way to be friendly and helpful (supposedly!). So storing
- SM> a field in the .info with the file type would be ideal. The Workbench
- SM> *has* to load the .info files anyway --- so the speed descrease would
- SM> be practically non-existant!
-
- But it leaves you dependant on another, seperate file whose only connection
- is its name + the ".info". With rename being handy to all, this *Is A Very
- Bad Idea IMHO*
-
- Just my $.02 worth
-
- [snip]
- Hi Fred :)
- SM> -FISH- ><>
-
- Cheers Fred, Gene
-
- /* Gene Heskett | These opinions are NOT to be */
- /* CE @ WDTV Weston/Clarksburg WV | confused with the official */
- /* <gene_heskett@wvlink.mpl.com> | WDTV managment views */
- #include <std.disclaimer>
-
-
-