12 Aug
2004
12 Aug
'04
4:57 a.m.
I agree in all what Hans had to say except for how data would be stored. This is supposed
to be an archive format which would in my view preclude getting data from the outside
world. My only other concern as I have stated before was that data should not be an
integral part of the media. If a device happens to be a tape drive, the data on the tape
still separates into "file" type data and overhead data required for the tape
physical format. Enbedding the "file" tyupe data inside of the physical format
makes the data inaccessible without special knowledge.
best regards, Steve Thatcher
-----Original Message-----
From: Hans Franke <Hans.Franke(a)siemens.com>
Sent: Aug 12, 2004 9:30 AM
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: archive file format exmaple
I'm not so sure about having the actual data
within the archive element;
I'd rather have it afterwards.
I would prefer an aproach where both ways are possible, includeing
a third wich allows to put the data even into another file. In the
CCDD definition almost every element (except META) may be empty and
have a HREF attribute pointing to it's content:
A take header record could have it's data included:
<DATA SIZE="80" ENCODING="CHAR" FILLER="
">HDR2U020480204841 00</DATA>
or just point to the data
<DATA HREF="#DB1"/>
<DATA SIZE="80" ENCODING="CHAR" FILLER=" "
ID="DB1">HDR2U020480204841 00</DATA>
which of course may even be in another file:
<DATA HREF="http://cc-archive.org/~hans/mytapes/T43782.xml#DB1"/>
12 Aug
12 Aug
5:33 a.m.
Am 12 Aug 2004 0:00 meinte Steve Thatcher:
I agree in all what Hans had to say except for how
data would be stored. This is supposed to be an archive
format which would in my view preclude getting data from
the outside world.
Well, a clear yes her ... and a no :)
Of course an achive of a media or a set of media has to
be cosistent and one pice - still it might be usefull to
split it up into several files (as someone already suggestes:
having format in one file and data in another, which can
even be a data file in Inel-Hex or whatever) which then
again are supposed to be handled together - e.g. in a
zip archive. After all, we're not reinventing the archiver
itself.
My only other concern as I have stated before was
that
data should not be an integral part of the media. If a
device happens to be a tape drive, the data on the tape
still separates into "file" type data and overhead data
required for the tape physical format.
Enbedding the "file" tyupe data inside of
the physical
format makes the data inaccessible without special knowledge.
Thanks for using the tape as example. Well, take a look at
the other mail... where would you put the header blocks ?
they are both, structure and data, since they where accessable
by the applications - If I open a tape file, I can go and
read only the data, but I may also access the headers. Even
more (at least on real computers *G*), a programm can write
it's own headers - there are even special user headers defined.
That was also one of the functions wicht made the PET special.
with a little additional programming, you could write application
specific header blocks, that where properly handled by the 'OS'
(read ignored :).
Gruss
H.
--
VCF Europa 6.0 am 30.April und 01.Mai 2005 in Muenchen
http://www.vcfe.org/
12:59 p.m.
On Thu, 12 Aug 2004, Steve Thatcher wrote:
I agree in all what Hans had to say except for how
data would be stored.
This is supposed to be an archive format which would in my view preclude
getting data from the outside world. My only other concern as I have
stated before was that data should not be an integral part of the media.
If a device happens to be a tape drive, the data on the tape still
separates into "file" type data and overhead data required for the tape
physical format. Enbedding the "file" tyupe data inside of the physical
format makes the data inaccessible without special knowledge.
Steve,
What if you don't know what a tape you are archiving contains in the first
place? What if you just want to preserve it in case someone else in the
future can figure it out?
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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5:29 p.m.
At 04:59 PM 8/12/2004, Vintage Computer Festival wrote:
What if you don't know what a tape you are
archiving contains in the first
place? What if you just want to preserve it in case someone else in the
future can figure it out?
A great point. I am reminded of the layers of TCP/IP.
It also reminds me of recording entire filesystems. Will
someday someone want to be able to drop into an emulation
of what a typical PC environment was like back in '94,
'96, '98, '04? We not only want to preserve floppies
but hard drives and all the files on them...
- John
7266
days inactive
7266
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3 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
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Hans.Franke＠siemens.com -
jfoust＠threedee.com -
melamy＠earthlink.net -
vcf＠siconic.com