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                AMIGA DISKS - WHAT, HOW, WHY
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                An article by Terry Brawls

If you find a very interesting program in the public-domain and
feel that you'd like to send a copy to SYNTAX, watch out for the
way the disk's been formatted. Now that there are 3 different
KickStart systems in existence, there are no less than 6
filesystems to choose from, some only accessible by the A1200.

 DOS\0 = OFS     (OldFileSystem)      = KickStart 1.1 & up.

 DOS\1 = FFS     (FastFileSystem)     = KickStart 2.0 & up.

 DOS\2 = INT-OFS (International OFS)  = KickStart 2.0 & up.

 DOS\3 = INT-FFS (International FFS)  = KickStart 2.0 & up.

 DOS\4 = DC-OFS  (DirectoryCache OFS) = KickStart 3.0 & up.

 DOS\5 = DC-FFS  (DirectoryCache FFS) = KickStart 3.0 & up.

If the program documentation says something to the effect that the
game/utility works on all Amigas (for instance), then make sure
that the copy you send is on a DOS\0-formatted disk, which will
ensure that ALL Amigas can load it. If you're not sure about how
it'll perform on other machines, use DOS\0 by default, just in
case.

Likewise, it's safe to use DOS\1 to 3 for WorkBench 2-only
programs. They may also run on WB 3 machines, and they'll
certainly be able to read the disks. WorkBench 1 machines can't
read these disks at all, but why buy a disk with a program you
can't run anyway?

DOS\4 & 5 should only be used to format disks that contain
programs that ONLY run on A1200s. WorkBench 1 & 2 machines can't
read these disks at all - see the previous paragraph.

Don't take it for granted that PD companies know what they're
doing as regards this matter - I've seen some gaffes in my time!
ALWAYS check disks when you get them.















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