AAUI

From: jpero_at_sympatico.ca <(jpero_at_sympatico.ca)>
Date: Tue Mar 27 02:34:35 2001

> Date: 27 Mar 2001 14:10:23 +0100
> From: "Iggy Drougge" <optimus_at_canit.se>
> Subject: Re: AAUI
> To: "Tony Duell" <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
> Reply-to: classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org

> Tony Duell skrev:
>
> >OK, these drives are non-stnadard enough that you can't plug them
> >straight into a PC's floppy controller. But that's not really what I was
> >talking about. Thing is, I can take a floppy disk from one of the HP
> >units, put it in a PC drive, and read/write to it using the right
> >software. There is no way a PC can read an original Apple Mac disk.
>
> Yoiu're so PC-centric. Since there really weren't any PCs with 3,5" floppy
> drives, that was a moot point. The Amiga used a format of its own as well,
> thoiugh not as involved as the Mac's, and I'm glad it did, since an extra
> hundred kays of space, not to mention a nice file system, was a nice bonus
> back in the day.
>
> >And I am quite sure that what most users would care about is being able
> >to transfer files (even just text) between their machine and their
> >cow-orker's machine. Which might be in another town, or another country,
> >so you can't set them up next to each other with a null-modem cable.
>
> Couldn't the original Macs read PC disks using Apple file exchange or similar
> programs?

Are you talking about these 400K and 800K format on these original
Macs? You can't unless one designs a card and special drive
with straight through raw analog connection that reads at analog
level and extract the bits by a/d and d/a conversions, translate it
to PC side. Physical tracks and pitch is same for all SD, DD and HD
3.5" disks. The software side to translate the data isn't the
problem, it's the physical chipsets on PC for the floppy drives is
the problem. It's the strange GCR formatting and 4 speed rpms, I did
feel the heads seeks change speeds 4 times through a whole init which
means the rpm changes in those original Macs. Needs a later Mac like
SE FDHD, SE/30 and any later Mac II upgraded to superdrive support,
any LC series, all quadra, centris, performas etc to format these
400K/800K disks to get old Macs going once again.

Reason I said having newer Macs to do this jump start process is a
given because of it's capablities like networking, init the
external HD drives, install old OSes, create 400K/800K disks to
transfer files or build up disk sets for non-SCSI capble orignal Macs
(Mac, Mac 512 etc) and other things.

Snip

> >I still think the correct solution to that is to use a bigger case. I
> >have never understood this love of making things small, especially not
> >when there are good technical reasons not to do so.
>
> If you live in a 17 m? flat like I do, you'll come to appreciate such things.
> =)

Correct, my whole place where I can keep my stuff is my
20'ish by 18' bedroom. Tower cases and compact desktop to stack upon
is big plus. Some other items went into closest, under that bed and
around it. Oh some more around and in that tv stand plus some
clutter besides me and stuff stuffed into my crappy chipboard hutch.

Snip

> Or they could have employed something like the micro DB-50, as seen on more
> modern systems. To add insult to injury, there were other SCSI manufacturers
> who used DB25 pinouts of their own. And what about the dangerous serial ports
> of the non-ADB models?

Hmmm... Again, there's the dangerous telephone wires, plug that in
place of properly wired apple wire for keyboard. POW! Goes the
keyboard microcontroller. That's another fatal design thanks to
apple for using telephone jacks instead of some kind of connectors.

> En ligne avec Thor 2.6a.
>
> Give your child mental blocks for Christmas.

Cheers,

Wizard
Received on Tue Mar 27 2001 - 02:34:35 BST