Talk:Hierarchical File System

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[edit] History

First paragraph under history needs editing to reflect accurate information on MFS. MFS permits file names of up to 255 characters in length (not 31). Depending on which version of the Finder used, either a 63 characters (very early Finder) or 31 character (later Finder) limit is further imposed. —204.42.16.173 00:13, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

Source? AlistairMcMillan 14:24, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

Macintosh Q&A (March 93) see answer to question 3 —204.42.21.167 23:55, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dig Bisques

In the external link to MacTech's November 1985 article on HFS File Structure Explained one of the example catalog node (Cnode) names is "Letter to Birks, Druffey, & Co." This seems to be a fairly coincidental name, as it very nearly matches the last names of Patrick Dirks and Bill Bruffy, who have been credited in this Wikipedia article with doing work on creating HFS. Now if only someone (other than Dan Allen) can verify his book "On Macintosh Programming" (ISBN 0-201-51737-X) contains the reference. —204.42.20.41 04:40, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

U.S. Patent 4945475 lists Bill M. Bruffey (note the subtle spelling difference) and Patrick W. Dirks as inventors of HFS. The patent was granted July 31, 1990, filed November 21, 1989, and is a continuation of an application filed October 30, 1986. It seems to contain a fairly technical description of a hierarchical filing system in general and not all of the specifics of the HFS found in Mac OS. The assignee of the patent is Apple Computer, Inc. According to Amazon.com, the inside flap of the book "Inside the JavaOS Operating System" (ISBN 0-201-18393-5) says that: "...Bill Bruffey of the MacOS group[...] is a great engineer who designed the Mac's innovative file system--the Hierarchical File System (HFS)." —204.42.20.6 03:32, 11 May 2006 (UTC)