It must be tough to process such difficult issues with a single flip-flop .
. .
See my comments below, plz.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: Sellam Ismail <foo_at_siconic.com>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2000 8:51 AM
Subject: Re: Defining Disk Image Dump Standard
> On Tue, 30 May 2000, Richard Erlacher wrote:
>
> > It's silly to mix these two desirables. They're not bound together.
Let's
> > not require something that's counterproductive as this is. If you make
a
> > distribution standard for media, then use it for distribution. Let the
OS
> > determine what's suitable for booting.
>
> Dick, once again with raging gradeur you have brought forth an entirely
> non-sequitur point of issue to the discussion at hand. Assuming you did
> understand what this thread is about, how does one separate the operating
> system from the programs and data on the disk (across disparate platforms)
> to be able to make a determination as to what becomes part of the archive?
>
The way you separate the operating system from the executables is by never,
Never, NEVER, mixing them on the same medium, particularly if it's intended
for dissemination. If the platforms are disparate, you certainly don't need
to distribute the OS. A generalized and "universal" medium has to be just
that. Keep in mind that what equipment was available back in the old days
when these old machines were relevant doesn't matter. What you need is a
way to put the material you wish to convey to some other party on a medium
which is likely to be readable today and in the future by the intended
destinee.
I'd not be surprised to find that every diskette you own has an OS on it,
else you wouldn't frame this issue as you have. For you, though not for
anyone else, I'd recommend you get a chisel and put your distribution data
on a stone slab. Most everyone else is smart enough to figure out how to
avoid writing the OS to a diskette or tape. I'd have thought you had run
into the problems with media exchange long enough ago to realize that since
it's YOUR computer, YOU can tell it what to write to the medium, just as YOU
can tell it how that material is to be organized and how it is to be
represented.
IIRC YOU were the primary opponent when this sort of issue was raised with
respect to documentation archival. You opposed the common and virtually
universally accepted file format used throughout the industry for exchange
of documents. You wanted to reduce everything to bitmapped images 100x as
large and 1% as easy to use as PDF's, just so you didn't have to use a PC to
process the data into something your odd-ball system could display. Now you
want to do something else that's quite similar.
I'm just raising the issue that not every system has floppy disks or mag
tape, and, certainly fewer have both. Then there's the issue of how to read
them on system A when written on system B. The latter's inherently
solvable, but if you want to archive data about or useful with a given OS,
you don't have to write the data to a medium capable of reading or
interpreting the OS image. The primary concern is finding a medium that's
available so whoever wants to participate in the process can get it here,
now, and in the future, and not by digging in a dumpster. That rules out
floppy disk, mag-tape, and a lot of other media, since their longevity on
the market is coming to an end. If you don't deal with that issue, you'll
have to start over again with it in another 5 years. The other warts you
design into the exchange process won't matter if you can't rely on getting
the physical media and both generating and accepting it at each end of the
process.
As far as I'm concerned, until you resolve the media issue, the format of
the content is a non-issue. Have you tried to read an LS120 diskette on
your Apple-][ lately?
>
> No, I really don't want to hear your reply, but something tells me you
> have nothing better to do anyway.
>
It's just as I said before: You simply want to transmit, but you don't want
to receive.
>
> Sellam International Man of Intrigue and
Danger
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
> Looking for a six in a pile of nines...
>
> Coming soon: VCF 4.0!
> VCF East: Planning in Progress
> See http://www.vintage.org for details!
>
>
Received on Tue May 30 2000 - 14:24:18 BST