17 Dec
2005
17 Dec
'05
12:20 a.m.
M H Stein wrote:
It's a pity the source code hasn't been released. I really don't like
using programs that I've not read through...
The problem then comes that I am likely to write my own programs to do
the same sort of job (as I did for HP calculator LIF disks, albeit before
imagedisk was released), and that will add yet another archive format...
Aside from bootable system disks, for which Dave
Dunfield's imaging program
seems to be a much better solution than Teledisk, what's the best way to
archive software in a way that makes it as universally useable as possible and
downloadable/emailable?
ImageDisk seems like a definite step in the right direction - it's certainly
done a brilliant job when I've tried it.
What it now needs IMHO is multi-platform support so that you don't *have* to
use DOS and so that it can be used by more people. (Whether a Windows version
is viable I don't know; certainly Linux seems to give you all sorts of ways to
reach the bare hardware though - presumably *BSD would be the same)
At least on this old version of linus (and I hope it's not been taken
out), the fdrawcmd Ioctl() allows you to do just about anything the FDC
chip is capable of.
someone writing utilities to pull data out of an image
at the file level, then
spitting them across a serial link with a terminal app to the original
hardware. Or converting them back into a 5.25" image file, say.
Getting the data off (and knowing you've captured it all) and onto modern
media is probably more important than what tools someone may use in the future
to interpret the data. Providing it's all captured of course!
I would think that any archive format that is complete enough to allow a
working version of the disk to be recreated for the original machine
would also allow individual files to be extracted given the right tools
(if only because recreating the a disk for the original machine, then
using it on that machine would allow you to do just that).
-tony