CodeSmith wrote:
Besides, one of the articles said that CF manufacturers have to pay a fee for each preformatted card, that means that it's the raw format that is being licensed, not the filesystem's algorithms.
Hmm, so surely all they have to do is provide the flash memory unformatted, leaving formatting as an exercise to the user? I assume these are just like floppy disks (which incidentally also tend to come pre-formatted with FAT FS), and don't care what format they have - so on an Amiga you could format them with FFS.
Digital cameras are another matter though, as they internally need to be able to read the filesystem. The best bet here is to devise a custom filesystem, but that not only makes it overly complicated to read with Windows (it is near impossible to get Windows to read any non-native filesystems, just like you can't easily add drivers for new types of hardware), but makes it even more difficult to read with any other OS, because the manufacturer isn't going to provide a Linux, Mac or Amiga compatible filesystem to use with their camera.
So, much as I hate to say it, and much as I think FAT is probably the worst filesystem anybody could consider using, looking at the alternatives, digital camera wise, it is probably best if they just buy a licence.
For normal storage devices though I would leave them with no filesystem if possible and leave any formatting up to the user.
Chris
