Defining Disk Image Dump Standard

From: Sellam Ismail <foo_at_siconic.com>
Date: Thu Jun 1 00:05:08 2000

Responding to an older message...

On Tue, 30 May 2000, Tony Duell wrote:

> However, I've just thought of a better example : I once saw a card for an
> Apple ][ containing a 1771 and associated components (and probably a
> ROM). It linked to an external box containing 2 8" drives. The official
> purpose was to allow an Apple with a Z80 Softcard to read standard SSSD
> CP/M disks. But I am _sure_ it could have been used from Apple DOS given
> the right software.
>
> Which means the archive format would have to allow for :
>
> Apple ][, 16 sector 5.25" GCR-encoded disk
> and
> Apple ][, 26 sector, 8", FM encoded disk.
>
> It may be a _very_ unusual format, but a proposed archive format should
> be able to handle _anything_. In any case, I would think that 256
> sub-formats for each machine would be plenty, which means this adds _1
> byte_ to the archive size. Not really a problem IMHO.

I suppose a sub-format byte wouldn't hurt. What I don't like about it is
that it will require that someone be maintaining a database of all the
sub-formats. But I guess since we have a machine identifier and this will
have to be maintained as well, a sub-format byte is not too demanding.
Of course, there will have to be a central person who is responsible for
receiving input for new machine and sub-format types, updating the
database with the new computer types and sub-format types, and
disseminating this from a website.

This is something that can be hosted from the VCF server.

The header could also include a text description entered in by the
archiver that could describe anything special about the archive. In fact,
I envision the archiving program having a section where the archiver
inputs his/her name and e-mail address, which will get encoded along with
the archive.

Sellam International Man of Intrigue and Danger
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Received on Thu Jun 01 2000 - 00:05:08 BST

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