In article <1992Mar15.164911.2835@muddcs.claremont.edu> jwinstea@jarthur.claremont.edu (Jim Winstead Jr.) writes:
quoted text
>> The devices database could be loaded at run-time. If you stuff everything
>> into a single binary, this gets even easier (single entry point).
>
> Easier to program, but not necessarily easier to use by a novice.

Why ? I have an /etc/mtools file right now, which looks like that:

A /dev/at0
B /dev/PS1
C /dev/hda1

No FAT bits, no sector numbers, etc. Of course, if the defaults don't
fit, or if the device has a strange name, one would have to specify the
other parameters too. (E.g. B /dev/dosB 12 80 2 18)

I few questions remain, however:
  a) has anybody *ever* seen a floppy disk with a 16 bit FAT on it ?
  b) has anybody *ever* seen a hard disk with a 12 bit FAT on it ?
  c) what are the /dev/dosA and /dev/dosC devices for ?

(Please mail, this mtools discussion already hogs alt.os.linux too much.)

There is a mechanism by which DOS determines the disk parameters, which is
based on a historically grown mixture of media bytes and format descriptors
(very ugly). I think it should be relatively easy to use that one.

quoted text
> If you can pull this off, and I can fit it on the root floppy, it will
> be there.  In any case, a better mtools would be ideal - the current
> one obviously has some holes in it.

Hmm ... are there any other known problems other than its awkward
configuration ?

- Werner
-- 
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  / Werner Almesberger, ETH Zuerich, CH      almesber@nessie.cs.id.ethz.ch /
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