You don't get it, do you?
I'm saying it's probably a bad idea to use floppy media. This is because
it's mechanical, (2) because it's organic, and (3) because it is soon to
become obsolete. Aside from problems of data format incompatibility, you
have to deal with the mechanism to be able to read/write the archive's
constituent elements.
If an element of any medium has more than one file on it, not necessarily a
bad thing though I'd say it's risky and inconvenient, that file can identify
itself at its beginning and end, Begin <filename.ext>, End <filename.ext>.
That way it doesn't matter over time what the medium is, at least insofar as
your file format is concerned. The choice of medium is important, since
floppies, however handy, are not going to be around forever. CD's are
probably too small for some things, but maybe they're a better format.
They're organic, too, however, so they'll be unduly sensitive to heat, not
to mention chemicals, etc. Floppies are much less stabile over varying
environmental conditions. OTP EPROMS are pretty stabile, however, and
they're VERY small.
If you're serious about creating an archive. It needs to be permanent, so
it's essentially requisite that the media be write-once. I'd say you're
better off with an OTP EPROM. Hardware to create them is dirt-simple to
create, eraseable/rewritable equivalents are readily available, and even if
the OTP's (very inexpensive, by the way) become scarce, there will still be
rewritables available which can be write protected by removing the VPP or
program pin. Use those and you'll have a real archive. What's more, there
are no mechanical components, nothing to rust, become misaligned, or wear
out.
If you build your own archival system you have the option of choosing a
different medium. That's what I'm recommending.
I say that the following points are under consideration:
> 1. Host computer type (2 bytes allowing up to 65536 models to be
specified)
> 1a. Host computer format, to allow for machines that support several
native formats (e.g. PERQ POS floppy/PERQ PNX floppy/PERQ interchange
floppy)
> 2. Track format (host computer specific) I assume things like the
interleave order go in here.
> 3. Sector format (single-density, double-density, etc)
> 4. Sector data format - this will specify what format the archived sector
is in (raw data? logical bytes?)
> 5. Bytes per sector
> 6. Bits per byte
None of these need be an issue if you use another medium, e.g. OTP EPROM.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: Sellam Ismail <foo_at_siconic.com>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2000 2:20 PM
Subject: Re: Defining Disk Image Dump Standard
>
> Ok, since certain individual(s) don't seem to understand what this project
> is about, what we are discussing here is DEFINING A STANDARD FILE FORMAT
> FOR ARCHIVING FLOPPY DISKETTES FROM DIFFERENT COMPUTING PLATFORMS.
>
> It is, amazingly, the very same project that was proposed when this
> discussion first began.
>
> 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 - 18:19:45 BST