Defining Disk Image Dump Standard

Just because system makers wanted to reduce the number of disks the sent out with their systems doesn't mean that their mistake has to be repeated. Just because they used to do it wrong, perhaps for a good reason (I'm sure they thought economics made their reason good). If you're trying to send a bit of information, and this is information, isn't it, you need merely find a way to distribute the information. You don't need to include unnecessary pieces of stuff that, in many cases, doesn't even belong to you. Are you saying that you don't know how to write a diskette without including the OS on it? see other comments below, plz. Dick ----- Original Message ----- From: Sellam Ismail <foo(a)siconic.com> To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2000 2:17 PM Subject: Re: Defining Disk Image Dump Standard never, intended need Too late! I already had my nap. a medium Well, what it looked like was exactly that, a perpetual motion machine. You'd perpetually be trying to deal with all the superflous information included due to your inability NOT to include the OS on a diskette. read OS, that's want Well, I believe you're probably more worked up than I. I doubt floppies will be around in 10-15 years, though they may be. However, if you don't find a way to avoid this built-in obsolescence, you'll be solving this problem again and again. I don't know what you're thinking about, but, the use of mechanical media of a type that's already been around as long as floppies, and, for that matter, other rotating media. Why not examine some other alternatives? What interested me about this thread was that a decision leading to as many problems as it solved was beginning to emerge. What puzzles me is why it's important that the originating system's identification data has to be included in a file of information, probably otherwise unrelated to the process of recording it. Once you have the means to read that data, it becomes suprefluous, since all that's needed once you're able to read that info is to figure out where the data block you're wanting to transmit begins and ends. If you want to be simple, you write absolutely nothing on the medium other than what you want to pass along. So long as you choose a medium that will be available later on when you want to use it, nothing could be simpler. The key is to use a data format that is easily understood, either because it's already a standard, or because you do things very simply by using one file per diskette, in a compressed format that is easily specified or standardized. With floppies, I don't know how you're going to use your Apple][ to read a diskette from a Kaypro. What's more, I don't know how you'll write a file with your PDP-5 such that a MacIntosh can read it. Danger -----