ImageDisk

Regarding the ImageDisk project: I was surprised at how much positive and supporting email I received in the past two weeks regarding ImageDisk, and I have been even more surprised at the number of people who asked me to continue the project - I did not think that many people were using (or at least interested in using) the program. In the light of this feedback, I am willing try and not allow the bad vibes from a few to bring down what so many indicate they still consider to be a good thing. To that end, I have reconnected the images archive on my web site, and I will continue to make the latest versions of ImageDisk available there. As this is a privately developed/funded project, you can choose to use it or ignore it as suits your particular mindset. I do not wish to re-open the can of worms that has aleady played out here, so please consider the following my "final say" on the subjects. If you disagree with my decisions, I invite you to excercise your option of creating your own software package more suitable to your requirements. Binary / Image Format --------------------- Some people have expressed concern about the future of the program as well as it's current legal status, especially given that I was ready to withdraw it from circulation. To address this, I have released a new version (1.09) of the program which contains an explicit license, which essentially states: - You may use the program for as long as you like. - You may distribute copies of the program as long as you do not alter or omit the original content. (You may make additions as long as they are clearly marked as such). - You may create/manipulate .IMD image files with no restriction (at least not from me) - I have included a statement explicitly placing the .IMD image file format specification into the public domain. - I guarantee nothing / I take no responsibility for what you do with any of this material. FYI: 1.09 also correctly supports the secondary controller, and should support 4 drives/controller - although I am unable to test the latter. It also has a new command in the Align/Test function that lets you write out a .IMD file containing a single track (read by 'D'), which can be useful for recovering marginal/bad sectors. (It was to me!) Source Code ----------- As noted in one of my earlier postings, I have no plans to release the ImageDisk source code under GPL - I don't agree with GPL. If your position is an inflexible "GPL or the highway", then please locate the nearest on-ramp and be on your way with no further ado. It is interesting to note that although I offered to make the source code available under a Non-Distribution-Agreement to anyone who had need of it, only one person asked for it, and this person was not one of those involved in the "discussion" (in fact this person does not subscribe to the mailing list and heard about the source code offer by another channel). I also gave the code to a second person (from the list) who was trying to get ImageDisk running under DOSEMU and I saw that he would benefit from seeing exactly what it was doing with the hardware (although he never actually asked for it). I'm not sure exacty what the above means, but it would suggest that the negative statements made in the mailing list and in private email were motivated more by "religion" than by any pressing need for the source code. At this time, for reasons I have already stated, I am not ready to make the ImageDisk source code generally available for modification. To address concerns that my source code policy is preventing people stated that they simply can't use the program without looking at it's source code (and for whatever reasons are unwilling to simply ask for it), I have made the concession of allowing the ImageDisk source files to be anonymously accessed on a "view only" basis. You can download IMDSRC.ZIP from my web site, which contains a viewer which will let you browse the source code files. I have no doubt that there are plenty of people here with the technical skills to break the viewer and extract the source code files, however I I ask that you please not do so. Please refer to the README.TXT file in the archive for my reasons. If you have a legitimate need to use the source files, please contact me and I am sure we can work out an arrangment. It is my wish to fully support anyone who is developing an ImageDisk compatible program for other environments. Regarding concerns that not using GPL will prevent anyone from using "ideas" from my source code - please note: I hold copyright on this code which protects this particular implementation/representation of the ideas and algorithms used within it, however I have neither applied for, nor received patents on any portion of the program. This means the ideas and algorithms themselves are NOT restricted. In other words you can use any of the techniques which I have employed in your own programs. To clairify this point, I have made an explicit statement to this effect in the terms and conditions which accompany the code viewer (although such a statement is not strictly necessary). -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html