[Coco] Are the files in the /dd/SYS directory always ASCII ?

[Rick Ulland]

Back in the 90's I completely abandoned trying to understand the OS9 
root or sub directory contents. Since I did not know about 
/home/username back then, I created a separate /dd/USR/program branch 
for any program data files I could place at will. I did this because 
MultiVue is also based on file extension, and needs the same data you 
want to compile.

When you enter a directory, MultiVue caches each icon (*.aif) file it 
sees along the way, that assigns the program to use for a particular 
extension. Navigate direct to /dd/usr/dynastar, an AIF might declare 
.doc to be a binary dynastar save. Go to /dd/help, an AIF declares .doc 
as plaintext(prolly with an ancient CI$ sig at the bottom:-) todump to a 
overlay window. Unfortunately, things fall apart as you move around, but 
they had a thought.

I don't think anybody spends that much time organizing their OS9 any 
more, but without Unix magic file type bytes and outside of  a few dead 
ringers like .txt, you sort of have to start with absolute location plus 
full filename, then some kind of .aif file mapper in case Multivue is 
installed and modifies the default values in some locations, and 
finally, some guesses based on typical extension. It's quite a task.

Anyway, I never added anything outside of /dd/USR, so this half 
recovered hard drive might not a have a huge example set, but it's a 
clean sample of placement overruling file extension...

CMDS    - binarys, ICONS dir (multivue icon bitmaps)
COM     - KBCOM dialer dir
DATA    - BvdP ‘diskcat’ data files
DEFS    - C compiler header files
DOCS    - text .doc files from way back
INPUTQ  - KBCOM input queue
KA9Q    - all things KA9Q(qv)
LIB     - C compiler library files
LOG     - cron logs
OUTPUTQ – KBCOM output queue
SYS     - ad hoc per filename
    CLIP    - from some gfx program
    DIAL    - from some telecom program
    ETHAWIN – etahwin txt cfg files (I blame Allen)
    FONTS   - binary fonts dir

And then anything the user might edit lies in /dd/USR/program, where each program can claim any file extension via .aif and so Good Luck With That.

I should compare this to Nitros9, I'm sure they have more to add but 
that is a whole project for next big snowfall.

-rick



On 9/24/20 3:18 PM, Jeff Teunissen wrote:
> Text directory list? I don't know to what this refers, but it smells of
> "not the best approach".
>
> On Thu, Sep 24, 2020, 11:00 AM <coco at jechar.ca> wrote:
>
>> Ok so I will not put /dd/sys on the text directory list.
>>
>> On 2020-09-23 21:39, L. Curtis Boyle wrote:
>>> Fonts aren’t really, or the stdptrs, etc.
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>
>>>> On Sep 23, 2020, at 6:16 PM, coco at jechar.ca wrote:
>>>>
>>>> 
>>>> I have not encountered any exceptions myself.
>>>>
>>>> Charlie
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Coco mailing list
>>>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>>>> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>>>
>> --
>> Coco mailing list
>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>