Aside from this file, the "fork" concept of Mac file systems caused some wtf moments. Fork not being fork() but being the two-pronged idea in that file system, both a resource and a data component existed as pair. One metadata and one the file contents. In Unix, the metadata was in the directory block inode, and wasn't bound to the file in a formalism uniquely, it had to be represented by structure in tar, or cpio or zip distinctly. Implementing Mac compatible file support in Unix meant treating the resource fork first class and the obvious way you do it is for each file have .file beside it.
You couldn't map all the properties of the resource fork into an inode block of the time in UFS. It has stuff like the icon. More modern fs may have larger directory block structure and can handle the data better.
You couldn't map all the properties of the resource fork into an inode block of the time in UFS. It has stuff like the icon. More modern fs may have larger directory block structure and can handle the data better.