[ros-dev] A room for improvement?

[Pierre Schweitzer]

> Pierre Schweitzer wrote:
> > Hi,
> > while working on GPT handling for ReactOS, one thing appeared: Microsoft (at least in Windows 2003 SP1) is using hardcoded partition entry size, ie it assumes that every partition entry in GPT will be 128 bytes big. Even if that assertion is largely right, it might exist cases where it's wrong. That's even why there's a field in GPT header that contains such size. Furthermore, reading Apple technical note(1) about GPT precise one more thing: "Do not hardwire the current size of the partition entry (128 bytes).".
> > As we have no commercial issues with Apple, perhaps could we drop a bit compatibility with Windows 2003 and fix something obvious? In most cases, users won't see any difference. Only difference would be that ReactOS could properly handle GPT with exotic partition entry size when Windows can't.
> > Any opinion on that subject?
> > Best regards,
> > P. Schweitzer
> >
> > (1): http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#technotes/tn2006/tn2166.html
> >   
> 
> What exactly would be the "incompatibility"? I'm for it as long as we
> don't break drivers or apps. IMO, interoperability with other file
> systems and disks is more important for reactos than for windows and we
> don't have to clone every detail of Windows behaviour.
> 
> Regards,
> Timo
> 
> 
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Only obvious case I see would be drivers assuming the same assertion than Microsoft: 128 bytes length for partition entry. Ensured that under Windows it would fail if it wasn't true. Under ROS, it wouldn't fail and may produce issues. But, it keeps being a really limited issue.