FAT file system now licensed by MS ?

From: Fred Cisin <cisin_at_xenosoft.com>
Date: Thu Dec 4 18:00:43 2003

On Thu, 4 Dec 2003, Tom Jennings wrote:
> But what exactly was "standalone BASIC". I recall it, I even had OEM
> distribution diskettes of it, but paid it no attention.
> Did it in fact have a filesystem integral? I just haev no idea.

It was a Microsoft BASIC, that had some rudimentary file handling
built in, including the capability of launching programs.

The best known is Coco RS-DOS (6809), but there were earlier versions,
on NEC8001 (Z-80) and some non-US Okidata machines (Z-80)

The directory structure was on a middle track (35 or 40), with a one
sector FAT (called a "GAT" "granule allocation table"). "Clusters"
("granules") were often half a track, and the table used 8 bit entries.
The FPDEs included a file size and a starting block number.
Received on Thu Dec 04 2003 - 18:00:43 GMT