[comp.sys.apple2] GS/OS and lower casey

phs172m@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au (Stephen Harker) (03/01/91)

In article <Rwy3X3w163w@bluemoon.uucp>, cmcurtin@bluemoon.uucp (Matthew Curtin) writes:
> mikef@pro-harvest.cts.com (Mike Fleming) writes:
> 
>> GS/OS's ProDOS FST stores filenames the same as ProDOS 8 always did--in all
>> upper case.  The difference is that GS/OS (And any P8 program--suck as
>> Shrinkit 3.2-- that knows about it) uses the VERSION and MIN   ^^^such
>> VERSION as flags to determine weather a character should be upper or lower
>> case.
> 
> Really?  I read (Gary Little's ProDOS 8 and GS/OS Reference, I think) that 
> not only can GS/OS understand LOWER CASE, but it could also understand the 
> slash (/) character as a legitimate for filenames, as GS/OS actually uses 
> colon (:) to separate directories, but haven't been able to get that to 
> work....  Why?

	There is a distinction between the GS/OS ProDOS FST (which was being
discussed) and GS/OS itself.  Basically GS/OS itself can deal with upper/lower
case filenames as well as filenames more than 15 characters long, however a
given filing system may not be able to accept these names.  Therefore the FST
will reject a filename rather than GS/OS itself.

	The limitations with ProDOS formatted disks are basically the same as
those of ProDOS 8, but Apple did enhance the ProDOS FST in the way described to
deal with upper/lower case filenames.  In another FST these limits would be
different and GS/OS would be just as happy.  This is why the issue of a mac HFS 
FST and a MS-DOS FST has caused a lot of interest and disappointment (at the
non availability).

	Read the GS/OS reference manual for more details.

-- 
Stephen Harker				phs172m@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au
Monash University