Apple II
Technical Notes
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                                                  Developer Technical Support


GS/OS
#5:    Resource Fork Formats

Revised by:    Matt Deatherage                                      July 1989
Written by:    Matt Deatherage                                   January 1989

This Technical Note discusses the resource fork format of GS/OS extended 
files.
Changes since January 1989:  Documented the location of resource fork 
format information.
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Due to an omission in GS/OS Reference, Volume 1, some developers are not aware 
that the format of the resource fork of any file is reserved by Apple 
Computer, Inc.  With the release of System Software 5.0 for the Apple IIGS, a 
Resource Manager is available to manipulate discrete chunks of data stored in 
the resource forks of files.  To prevent corruption of media, information 
should only be stored in any resource fork in this format.

The Resource Manager should always be used to manipulate the data in resource 
forks.  Some utilities may find this impossible and will require direct 
manipulation of resources without the Resource Manager.  Information on the 
format of the resource forks is included with the Resource Manager 
documentation in the System Software 5.0 documentation.


Further Reference
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    o    GS/OS Reference, Volume 1
    o    System Software 5.0 documentation (APDA)