Xerox

From: D. Peschel <dpeschel_at_u.washington.edu>
Date: Thu Dec 17 12:48:31 1998

> I think your memory has some holes (I knew that anyway). As far as I
> remember, with a random access text file, Apple DOS will write 1000 * 128
> (128,000) bytes of zeroes before it lays down your 128 bytes, thereby
> creating a large, mostly empty file.

I don't think that's true -- it's possible to create a file with no sectors
corresponding to certain parts.

There was a serious bug involving APPENDing to random-access files (i.e., it
didn't work). Apple came up with some patches. I don't know how they work,
but I doubt they solved the problem since the information DOS needed (the
size of the file in records, or the last byte in a record, or something) just
wasn't there. At least I think that's the story. ProDOS didn't have that
problem because it kept enough info.

Doesn't that also point to the ability to have holes in files?

Later I'll dig out _Beneath Apple DOS_ and see what it says.

-- Derek
Received on Thu Dec 17 1998 - 12:48:31 GMT