Let's develop an open-source media archive standard

From: Steve Thatcher <melamy_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Wed Aug 11 17:22:23 2004

I am not assuming anything about the data. The usual use is to have files... in the case of a paper tape emulator system used for CNC, the disk structure may not resemble a normal file structure. It still contains one or more blocks of data. you can apply whatever name to that you want to. The boot sector on a cp/m 8" disk doesn't have a name, but it is a block of data that is separate from everything else. Personally, I would want to be able to "read" the boot sector and potentially even write it back to an image file. It really doesn't make a difference whether you access track 0 and sector 1 or a data block inside the image file that contains the boot code.

best regards, Steve Thatcher

-----Original Message-----
From: "Dwight K. Elvey" <dwight.elvey_at_amd.com>
Sent: Aug 11, 2004 1:39 PM
To: melamy_at_earthlink.net, cctalk_at_classiccmp.org
Subject: RE: Let's develop an open-source media archive standard

>From: "Steve Thatcher" <melamy_at_earthlink.net>
>
>I agree with Sellam on the point about using it both for media re-creation and
emulation. The trouble with the approach below of just using raw data on a
track sector basis is that now you have created a file that can only be used
with an emulator that understands the physical format and OS access for the
computer system you are emulating. My earlier point of separating the data and
the format information allows a single file (that would not be much bigger that
the one described below) to contain multiple platform specific files that can be
"read" by a simple utility that does not require any knowledge of the OS or the
platform.
>
>best regards, Steve Thatcher

Hi Steve
 You seem to be assuming that the particular disk you are
archiving has a file structure. This is not always the case.
Dwight
Received on Wed Aug 11 2004 - 17:22:23 BST