Mail Archives: opendos/1997/02/11/06:23:56
On Mon, 10 Feb 1997, MORRIS JP wrote:
> > If it happens like this, I expect we'll start out with a few big driver=
s
> > (say 60-80k) for the most common filesystems, then suddenly everyone wi=
ll
> > start pouring out their own FS's with their own (optimized) drivers (sa=
y,
> > 10-20k, larger if the FS automagically implements compression (gasp! Di=
d
>=20
> NO, NO, NO, NO!
>=20
> I have already lost 3 hard disks to compression and I do not intend to lo=
se any
> more.
>=20
> Disk compression is EVIL!
Bravo! Another anti-compressionist! =20
> Let me tell you a little tale....
>=20
> Many years ago when I was just learning C, I wrote a little game using th=
e BGI
> system (didn't we all?).
Heh heh, yah, too bad we didn't know that it was easier to use
ASM and our own routines eh?
> Unfortunately, my sprite info got corrupted, and I ended up with an objec=
t
> 1 pixel wide and 2048 high, under cursor control.
>=20
> In a fit of curiosity, I dangled it out the bottom of the screen.
> Down out the screen, down through the ROMS, into the UMB and it speared m=
y
> SuperStor (came free with DR-DOS 6!!) driver straight through the heart.
Hmmm. Bummer. I've heard nothing but stories like this about
disk compression. Everyone that I know who has used disk
compression (regardless of which program they've used) has lost
their drive at one point in time or another.
> Superstor's last dying action was to turn my hard disk into one file call=
ed
> =A3"$%"=A3$%"=A3 which was 1gb long. (This was a 40mb MFM disk)
>=20
> This was the logical drive. On the physical drive, I did inspect the rem=
ains
> of the superstor drive, which was a big long file full of LZW data.
>=20
> Therefore I could not recover my disk, and the only recourse was to remov=
e the
> file and start again.
>=20
> I used superstor twice after that, lost both of the disks to various soft=
ware
> crashes and never touched superstor again.
Didn't learn the first time? Heh heh. Well, I was just thinking
of trying out the Stacker that comes with OpenDOS. I've never
used disk compression on my own machines before, and I figured
that maybe it would work now since it's been around for years
now. You've just convinced me against it permanently I think.
I'm not willing to jeopardize ANY data. EVER!
=20
> > I just write what I think I did???)). Because the basic API would be t=
he
> > same, we'd end up with hundreds of compatable FS's - BEAT THAT, M$!!! :=
)
>=20
> I assume we use FAT for removable disks, otherwise we will have hundreds =
of
> incompatible floppy disks.
Well, how would I put ext2 LFN files on floppy then? What about
symbolic links? I know that I'll be using ext2 for floppies.
The OS will read any floppies that it has IFS support for. I
mean you're only probably going to have 2 types anyways; FAT, and
ext2. I hardly think we'll see too many "serious" useful
filesystems crop up. ext2 is as good as anyone needs.
> > >the
> > >smaller the better. Better yet, instead of dumping the driver, what=
=20
> > >about
> > >caching the driver? That way you don't have the driver reinitialize
> > >itself, it's ready to do! (This assumes the system uses the driver in
> > >Protected Mode with a smart enough swapmanager.)
> >=20
> > Can you run a PM driver while the OS remains in RM? Nifty >:-)
>=20
> Could cause problems if you run Ultima 7 or some demos with wierd memory
> managers.
Have 2 different drivers available? One PM, and one RM. Make
them loadable on the fly like in Linux.
> > Problem, though: I haven't coded anything REMOTELY similar to this. H=
ow
> > feasible is it, really? Anyone (I mean who has (pseudo)experience with
> > things of this nature) know whether or not this might work?
It might. Cross your fingers! If not, the worst thing that
could happen is that your hard drive will get wiped out, also
trashing all of your backups, and your computer will explode.
You won't be able to restore anything because everyone you know
will be using a different filesystem, and a different version of
OpenDOS which they've whipped up themselves. :o)
Mike A. Harris | http://blackwidow.saultc.on.ca/~mharris
Computer Consultant | My webpage has moved and my address has changed.
My dynamic address: http://blackwidow.saultc.on.ca/~mharris/ip-address.html
mailto:mharris AT blackwidow DOT saultc DOT on DOT ca
URL of the day: http://www.sun.com
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