[WikiReader] file system questions (was: [wikireader]Suggestions for next steps on software)

[Christopher Hall]

On Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:46:57 -0700
Doug Jones <dj6mf at frombob.to> wrote:

> [snip]
> > I like this approach, just remind that as far I see the code and by
> > comments of the devs, the kernel implements the bare just enough to
> > read files, so I think directories are not implemented at all that's
> > why all is on root directory so at least basic hierarchical
> > filesystem has to be implemented before we can do this solution.
> > But directories will easy the organization of pictures too
> 
> 
> Good point.
> 
> So two important questions to be answered, before we get any further 
> into this:
> 
> (1) Has OpenMoko made the policy decision that filenames will be
> limited to 8.3?

I would prefer to keep it simple, the boot loader must run in under 7kB
of internal RAM (actually it uses overlays) so adding more code
here is not so easy.  
> 
> 
> (2) How complicated will it be to implement subdirectory support?
The version of the file system supports directory access, but there
is no support for "chdir"

we are using this:   http://elm-chan.org/fsw/ff/00index_e.html
presently at version: R0.06

so all pathnames have to be absolute, I tried a couple of quick
tests and I could create and read a file in the folder, but I am missing
"mkdir" in forth, (just need to add the interface routine)

It looks like there is a new version with "chdir" support, but
I have not investigated this yet

Hope this answers your questions 


> 
> 
> Note that only one subdirectory level is really needed to implement
> what has already been suggested.
> 
> The current implementation contains 81 files, totaling 4.2GB for the 
> English version.  Nearly all of that is in the big wiki data files 
> (pedia*).  The other files, the ones you get when you make install, 
> comprise 49 files and only 18MB, and most of that is fonts (which are 
> often different for different languages).
> 
> We could adopt a brain-swap approach:  After bootup, the user selects 
> one wiki and then the app switches to the selected subdirectory and 
> considers that to be the root until the next cold boot.  All 81 files 
> for that particular wiki and language would be in that subdirectory, 
> including the big wiki data files and the fonts and the remaining
> files (45 files, only 381KB, and this includes ALL of the
> executables!)  While the single app is running, it would not have to
> access (or even know about) anything outside its current directory,
> so no filesystem calls relating to directory navigation would be
> needed within that particular kernel.elf.  Only the initial wiki
> selection app (we would have to write one) would have to understand
> subdirectories, and only to one level deep.
> 
> 
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