[comp.sys.amiga] A 1.4+ suggestion then...

ckp@grebyn.com (Checkpoint Technologies) (10/16/89)

In article <8181@cbmvax.UUCP> daveh@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Haynie) writes:
>Each file header contains pointers to the first 72 data blocks.  If a file
>is longer than that, the file header will have a pointer to an extension 
>block, which points to the next 72 data blocks, and also has an extension
>block.  So to seek ahead 200K, the filesystem will have to move through 
>5 extension blocks to find the pointer that references the block at 200K.
>
>Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Systems Engineering) "The Crew That Never Rests"
>   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: hazy     BIX: hazy
>                    Too much of everything is just enough

  May I then make a request for 1.5 (or 1.6 or whenever you decide to
make incompatible changes to the filesystem): How about making
the file index blocks in a tree? The first 72 pointers refer to data
blocks, until there are more than 72. Then they point to the next
level of index blocks, until there are more than 5184 (72 times 72).
A linear search of the index blocks in a bad way to do things.
Especially when on a hard disk with file sizes in the multi-megabytes.